Sleep Apnea Test Centers
Thursday, June 10th, 2010Sleep Apnea Test Centers
A familiar sleep complaint is called sleep apnea which disrupts your rest while you are attempting to sleep. There are various non threatening forms of sleep apnea but there are particular situations where there might be serious health issues and expose you to life threatening hazards. That is why it’s of the utmost necessity to be administered a sleep apnea exam if you have a belief that you’re losing rest from this trouble.
There are a number of ways that you can tell if you may be experiencing sleep apnea, and many unfortunate people suffer from other symptoms or conditions in which sleep problems chronic. For instance , weight gain, fatigue, and mental depression all of which may be caused by sleep problems, and they will also have cotton mouth or waking up often with a panic attack.
You may experience insomnia along with your sleep disorder but the only true way to discern whether or not your symptoms are caused by sleep apnea is to spend some time to be tested for sleep apnea. This test is usually 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.
You’ll need to take a physical exam and part of the test 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 have the patient stay overnight 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 can be given via two methods. The first type of test is carried out overnight and consists of monitoring the following activities; your heart rate, your breathing pattern, your eye movement and also your brain activity.
The second type covers a home monitoring version of the test where a technician connects the electrodes and makes it easy to monitor the patient while they are at home using a PSG. The result that is being looked for in determining the results of the test is something called the RDI or the respiratory disturbance index.
Numerical terms express the number of times you experience a negative breathing pattern 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 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.
Occasionally, there are some added exams 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 roughly 10 minutes to fall into a restful sleep so those who fall straight into a deep sleep in under five minutes should get some intervention. There is also a strip test that may be used in front of the sleep apnea exam in order to determine if there are further tests needed.