No Stupid Questions @lemmy.world BOMBS @lemmy.world 11 mo. ago

What can a thorough sleep study reveal about a person's sleep and well-being?

Last night, I completed a sleep study. They connected me to an EEG and EKG. They also measured my breathing and monitored me all night through video and audio. The sleep tech explained that they were not allowed to tell me what the results were, so I have to wait for the specialist to contact me in a few weeks. In the mean time, I'm wondering what the sleep study could possibly reveal about my sleep and general well-being.

Edit: For years, I have been waking up feeling exhausted. It takes me hours to get going in the morning. They were concerned I might have sleep apnea. However, when I was getting hooked up, the sleep tech told me that they look for much more than just sleep apnea.

25 comments

You're still sleep. This is doctor. We've been trying to reach you. Time to wake up.
- I'm sorry Dr. Wesker I've decided to live here full-time. Please notify my family.
  
  Your insurance isn't going to cover. Our technicians have alerted the dream police. You must be victed.
My boss has sleep apnea and did a sleep study. It turns out he was having roughly 80 episodes an hour where he stopped breathing. They also found that his heart rate was jumping up to 135 bpm during these episodes, as well as his cortisol levels rising way above normal.

I would say it is probably good to know the severity of the condition, as it might be good to know how treatment might need to be. Having your heart rate spike like that is not good, and it means that he will have more monitoring and checking in with his doctor as he adjusts to and uses his CPAP machine.
- 80 episodes an hour? That's gotta be a typo, right?
  
  If it lasts only a second or so before the body self-corrects, that's slightly more than once per minute.
  
  According to him, it was in fact 80 per hour. Definitely sounds crazy.
- In the past I remember feeling my heart racing whilst asleep (in a dream?) I am not sure if I should check for sleep apnea
  
  I would check on it if you are concerned. It can't hurt to check and if you find something that needs to be addressed, now you know and can work on fixing it.
  
  Do you snore?
Sleep apnea, of course, but any other abnormalities in the expected “pattern” of sleep. The typical pattern is a specific amount of relaxation and various brainwave activity over time. If you spend too long or too little time in one of those phases is may indicate some medical or psychological issues that can usually be treated and/or cured to help you wake up refreshed like everyone is “supposed” to for a longer, better life.
They usually look for how long you're in each stage of sleep, how well you oxygenate, heart patterns, and awakenings. All of these things, if not working correctly, cause us to get poor sleep and lose grey matter in our brain.

Apnea is really about oxygen delivery which can be hindered by something like our tongue, or our chest (obstructive sleep apnea), or even our brain not communicating properly (called central sleep apnea).

We can also have arm and leg twitching which wakes us up. Heart issues can play a role as well. There are others but I can't remember them off the top of my head right now.
My daughter was born extremely prematurely and needed oxygen for a while. Sleep, especially REM sleep (which is actually one of the "shallower" stages of sleep) is where blood oxygen is generally lowest. Therefore, we had to do a sleep study (just monitoring blood oxygen and heart rate) to make sure her lungs were developed enough to go off of oxygen day and night.

I'm assuming your lungs are pretty well-developed, but if you have something going on that may impede your blood oxygen levels, there is that at least.
- That sounds rough. How is she doing now?
  
  MUCH better, thanks! She's 18 months old now and still a little developmentally delayed (even accounting for her prematurity) but off oxygen, not needing nearly as many medicines, becoming a lot more interested in food not from a bottle, and just becoming a fun baby.
  
  Pretty terrifying when she was born at 1 pound 4 ounces (580 grams) though
When I did my sleep study the doctor told me that it takes a long time to analyse the data because there's a lot of it. So a cursory glance is usually not enough to see everything.

Sleep apnea is apparently the most common cause of issues. My doc also said there are other possible causes but I can't remember what he said (or if he listed any others at all).
Why did you get the sleep study? It kinda sounds like you did it for fun if you don't know what you're potentially expecting from the results.
- For years, I have been waking up feeling exhausted. It takes me hours to get going in the morning. They were concerned I might have sleep apnea. However, when I was getting hooked up, the sleep tech told me that they look for much more than just sleep apnea.
They measured one night, so nothing.
- Got a source to back that up that one night would reveal nothing?
  
  My n=1, they measured two consecutive nights because usually the first night is bad because you have to get used to all the stuff attached to you.
  
  Yes, it’s one night.
  
  If you need a source to confirm that one abnormal nights sleep tells you almost nothing about a persons “sleep and wellbeing” then you are either 9 years old or an idiot. Perhaps you are both.

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