Sleep Study

“Laugh and the world laughs with you; snore, and you sleep alone!”

What is OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea)?

  

 

OSA

  • Sleep disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of narrowing or collapse of pharyngeal airway during sleep despite ongoing breathing efforts.
  • These often lead to
    • Acute derangements in blood gas disturbances
    • Surges of sympathetic activation
    • Periodic arousal from sleep (fragmented sleep)
  • Sleep Study (Polysomnography) is a multi-parametric test used in the study of sleep and as a diagnostic tool in sleep medicine

Why Does This Matter?

Lack of sleep causes

  • daytime drowsiness
  • morning headaches
  • irritability ,behavior problems
  • memory problems
  • loss of focus and impaired thinking
  • poor quality of life and work productivity
  • increase the risk of accidents
  • daytime drowsiness
  • morning headaches
  • irritability ,behavior problems
  • memory problems
  • loss of focus and impaired thinking
  • poor quality of life and work productivity
  • increase the risk of accidents
Levels of Sleep StudyTypicall

.Level 1

  • Full in lab PSG

.Level 2

  • Miniaturized full PSG in a non-lab setting

.Level 3

  • Cardiopulmonary studies
  • Oximetry, airflow effort, HR

.Level 4

  • 1,2 or 3 channels
  • – One channel must be airflow. other channels typically are pulse-ox and HR

Typically a split night sleep study is done in which initially the quality of sleep is tested and if significant abnormality is found it is checked how much CPAP/BIPAP pressure is required to correct that abnormality.

CPAP Therapy is the major prescribed therapy for sleep apnea. It helps to keep open the airways by maintaining positive pressures doing both inspiration and expiration and thus does not allow the airways to collapse.