Has your doctor recently suggested that you take part in a sleep study? If so, you may be struggling to understand what this means for you and your health. Most of the time, a sleep study is performed because you’ve told your doctor that you’re snoring or waking frequently at night. Maybe you’re having trouble falling asleep or are waking up feeling exhausted. Often, health care practitioners request that you have a sleep study done to determine whether or not you have sleep apnea, a medical condition which causes frequent night waking, snoring, morning headaches and dry mouth, as well as some serious adverse effects overtime.
At Home Sleep Studies
If you’re like many patients, you’ll first prefer to try having your sleep study performed at home. These tests are generally cheaper and provide the comfort of sleeping in your own bed, rather than a laboratory.
When you leave your physician’s office, you’ll be given a small device to wear in bed. This device measures vital information while you roll comfortably around in bed at night. Many health care providers also require that you keep a written diary describing your activity before turning in for the night. This can help determine whether any actions you took earlier influenced your sleep later on.
The following day, you’ll return the doctor’s office and there they’ll analyze the data collected by your sleep study device. If they’re unsure of the results, they may ask that you have a polysomnography, or in lab sleep study, performed.
What is a Polysomnography?
Polysomnographies are done in a hospital or sleep study center where doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists can watch your vital signs closely throughout the night. They’ll keep an eye on your blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, brain activity, and number of breaths or episodes without breath throughout the night. In lab sleep studies are generally considered more reliable although they are more expensive and tend to cause some nervousness in patients which could upset the results.
Studies Lead to Effective Treatment
Both in home and in lab sleep studies are painless and help your health care team find the best solution to whatever is causing your sleep disturbance at night. If your doctor diagnoses you with sleep apnea, try staying calm. Treatment of sleep apnea is painless, and most people report feeling an increase in their quality of life once they start therapy.
It’s important to get therapy initiated as soon as possible because untreated sleep apnea can create a lot of problems such as high blood pressure or stroke. CPAP therapy is the first step in correcting the elements that lead to the development of these serious health problems.
The most frequently prescribed therapy for sleep apnea sufferers is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure administered by a CPAP machine. CPAP therapy puts a stop to your snoring and helps you get a better night’s rest almost immediately.
Purchase Your Perfect CPAP Machine
Modern day CPAP technologies are advancing all of the time. Most machines are quiet and take up very little space. Sleep apnea masks vary in shape and size guaranteeing that you’ll find the perfect mask for your face and prescribed therapy. Breatheeasycpap.com is an online CPAP supply retailer ran by health care professionals passionate about respiratory health. At their online storefront, you’ll most certainly find the perfect CPAP system to suit your needs.
