Insomnia Tips and Answers

Sleep Apnea Testing Equipment Free Tip

Sleep apnea is a disorder which causes you to quit respiring while you’re sleeping. There are several distinct forms and while they are not normally life threatening there are distinct conditions where there could be serious health outcomes and put your life in peril. it is of great relevance to get a sleep apnea examination if you have an inkling that you are suffering from this sleep condition.

Several methods are available for determining if you are suffering from sleep apnea, and many people who suffer have a number of symptoms or may even have sleep apnea as a side effect. For example ,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.

You may experience insomnia along with 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 center but can also be done at hospitals and clinics that have overnight facilities and diagnostic equipment.

The first step is a physical exam which consists of a physical check on your nose, throat and palate. There should also be a list of questions detailing the following subjects, sleep quality, patterns, disturbances and impressions. The next step is to have you sleep with them overnight where a record is kept of how well you sleep.

The common test to record your sleep patterns is the PSG or polysomnogram, which comes in two varieties. The first variety is the overnight test and involves supervising various activities such as your heart rate, your breathing pattern, your eye movement and also your brain activity.

The second testing type involves a home monitoring version where a skilled technician attaches the proper electrodes and makes it easy to monitor the patient while they are at home using a PSG. What they will be trying to discern when deciding whether the results of the test are good or bad is a factor called the RDI or respiratory disturbance index.

This expresses in numerical terms the number of times you experience a negative breathing pattern which occurred in breathing over the course of the test. Here is the list of values frequently used when judging whether or not a person has sleep apnea. If the number of abnormal events in an hour is over twenty in number the doctor can diagnose the patient with a form of sleep disorder, possibly sleep apnea.

There are some additional examinations which may also be requested including a multiple sleep latency test that figures out how poorly you are actually sleeping. A normal person requires, on average, around 10 minutes to begin to fall asleep so those who fall asleep in five minutes are considered good candidates for treatment. A strip test is also helpful to take in front of the sleep apnea exam in order to determine if one is needed.