Learn More About Sleep Apnea Testing
Sleep apnea is a complaint which induces you to stop respiring while you are attempting to sleep. There are several different kinds and while they are not ordinarily life threatening there are conditions that might lead to grave medical problems and put your life at risk. it’s of great relevance to acquire a sleep apnea test if you have an idea that you are suffering from this sleep disorder.
Several methods are available for determining if you may be experiencing sleep apnea, and many people who suffer have a number of symptoms or may even have sleep apnea as a side effect. For instance ,fatigue, gaining weight, and mental tiredness all of which are aggravated by sleep apnea, and they also might have dry mouth or a sudden panic attack upon waking up.
Insomnia may be a part of your sleep disorder but the best means to determine if your symptoms are induced by sleep apnea is to go to your physician and take a sleep apnea test. It is standard for the test to be administered at a sleep disorder center but can also be administered at a hospital or doctor’s office where the appropriate facilities and equipment are available.
The first thing to do is have a physical exam which consists of a good hard look at your mouth, throat and sinus areas. There should also be a list of questions detailing the following subjects, sleep quality, patterns, disturbances and impressions. The next step is to keep you over night where a video record is made of how you slept.
The most common recording test used during this process is going to be a PSG which stands for a polysomnogram which is administered in to various forms. The first type of test is carried out overnight and consists of monitoring several activities including your breathing, heart rate, level of oxygen in your blood and your brain level.
The second testing type involves a home monitoring version where a technician connects the electrodes and allows for more convenient monitoring of the patient at home through the standard PSG. The result that is being looked for in determining the results of the test is a factor called the RDI or respiratory disturbance index.
This method expresses in data form the amount of unnatural hitches which may have disrupted your pattern of breathing through the night. The following values are usually used when deciding if someone has a sleep apnea issue. If the number of captured events over the period of an hour is higher than twenty then the patient is diagnosed with some form of sleep apnea.
There are additional tests which may also be requested including a multiple sleep latency test that determines how much your lack of sleep is effecting you. Normally, a person requires around 10 minutes to begin to fall asleep so individuals who can fall asleep in less than five minutes are usually recommended for treatment. A strip test is also helpful to take prior to the sleep apnea test to see of further testing is needed.
