Diagnosing sleep apnea is essential in order to prevent health complications like cardiovascular disease and stroke. General practitioners (GPs) can pre-screen for obstructive sleep apnea before scheduling an overnight polysomnogram study in a clinic if required.
Sleep testing typically entails spending the night at a clinic or lab to monitor your breathing and other vital signs, while your physician might also suggest at-home testing.
Convenience
Home sleep tests (also referred to as home sleep studies or HST) offer an efficient means of diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), an undiagnosed disorder which results in breathing pauses and gasping during sleep, leading to serious health consequences and potentially contributing to high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease among other issues.
Polysomnography studies, or in-lab sleep studies, require participants to spend the night at a lab while sensors and technicians monitor their sleep. While this method can be expensive and time consuming to arrange, home sleep studies offer greater convenience and affordability, and can capture more essential data than polysomnography studies can.
These tests not only assess breathing episodes but can also measure chest and abdominal movement, oxygen levels in your blood, heart rate and snoring detection as well as any related body movements or factors that could contribute to your disorder. They utilize technology from REM Systems that makes their devices easy for anyone to use; similar to WatchPAT and ARES models but without the requirement that patients return them back to a sleep clinic for service.
Most health insurance plans cover home sleep apnea tests; it is wise to check coverage details prior to scheduling one. Certain insurers also offer discounts for such exams.
At-home tests for sleep apnea can identify obstructive sleep apnea; however, they cannot accurately identify other forms of disordered sleeping such as narcolepsy or periodic limb movements disorder since these tests only measure airway and oxygen levels whereas full sleep studies monitor brain activity as well as eye, leg and arm movements during sleep.
Home sleep apnea tests today are more precise than ever before, like the Sleep Doctor test which features sensors attached to wrist, finger and neck strap to monitor seven metrics that help doctors identify obstructive sleep apnea.
Comfort
HST provides many advantages over traditional polysomnography studies, including convenience. No need to find a sleep center and arrange an overnight study – plus its price point can be much less. HST studies are much less costly – typically under $10,000!
However, it’s important to keep in mind that at-home sleep tests do not always give an accurate representation of your actual sleeping patterns. At-home tests typically measure breathing parameters such as the effort required for breathing or whether or not your breaths are deep or shallow compared with actual sleeping conditions.
At-home sleep tests may also be susceptible to error if sensors are misplaced or device settings are incorrect, leading to false negative results – in other words, being told you don’t have sleep apnea when in fact you do have it. To ensure accurate results for high risk OSA patients or those displaying symptoms it is strongly advised that they undergo a full polysomnogram in a sleep lab before making decisions regarding treatment options.
PAP (paedophelic acid polysomnography), the portable monitoring test or simply “PAP,” is one form of HST commonly used. This device consists of a small recording device attached by straps to both head and chest of wearer with sensors measuring metrics like heart rate, airflow, blood oxygen levels and body position – often used to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea as well as some other sleep disorders.
At home sleep tests can include respiratory inductance plethysmography (RIP). This test involves wearing belts around your chest and stomach with sensors connected to wires carrying small current. When your chest and abdomen move, this creates a change in current that’s recorded by sensors, which then helps physicians assess breathing strength and frequency to assess potential sleep apnea episodes.
At-home sleep tests use devices with several sensors that come into direct contact with the skin, including mouthpiece and cannula placed around nose and mouth. Therefore, these single-use items must be cleaned and disinfected prior to being reused by another patient; all reusable components such as recording device, oximeter, belt etc must also be thoroughly sterilized between tests.
Accuracy
Sleep apnea interferes with oxygen flowing through your blood, making breathing hard during sleep and forcing your heart to work harder than it should in order to deliver it, leading to irregular heartbeat or high blood pressure – potentially dangerous symptoms that need immediate treatment and diagnosis. If this describes you, get diagnosed and treated as soon as possible to ensure safety.
Home sleep studies offer a convenient solution for testing for obstructive sleep apnea without spending the night at a clinic or lab, making them increasingly popular due to their convenience. Medicare and Medicaid both accept home tests; additionally they are cheaper than polysomnography studies.
Home sleep studies do have their limitations. While they don’t provide as much information than polysomnography tests do, and can be more prone to technical malfunction due to no on-site support being present during at-home tests; thus resulting in inaccurate or incomplete results due to device malfunction or cable disconnections that might result.
Although an at-home sleep study may have its limitations, it remains an effective tool for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea. Most patients experiencing symptoms can benefit from using one; all that needs to be ensured is the equipment being used is correctly placed and connected securely; additionally they should avoid alcohol or caffeine prior to taking the test as well as napping on test day.
If you suffer from symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, such as loud snoring and episodes where breathing stops completely during the night, please visit Comprehensive Sleep Care Center and speak with one of their board-certified sleep medicine specialists. With 10 convenient locations throughout Virginia and Maryland (Alexandria, Arlington, Bethesda, Chantilly Dumfries Fredericksburg Germantown Lansdowne Manassas Woodbridge) Comprehensive Sleep Care Center can assist with finding solutions to all of your sleeping issues! Call now and schedule your consultation – let us help get the restful restorative restful sleep you deserve!
Time
Compare this with an overnight polysomnogram sleep study conducted in a lab: at-home tests take much less time and require only once-wearing of equipment compared with multiple nights for repeated measurements in a lab setting. Furthermore, home devices tend to be much more user-friendly – the sensors being much smaller and designed specifically to fit comfortably around nose and mouth areas.
At-home device is easy to use and comes complete with clear instructions as well as a helpline number should any issues arise. In addition, the kit also contains a sleep diary and journal to record results of every nightly test.
At-home testing may not provide immediate interpretation. Lab technicians can review data to interpret whether it indicates sleep apnea. Furthermore, at-home tests often have higher error rates because devices aren’t monitored by trained health professionals and sensors can easily become dislodged or malfunction.
Polysomnography sleep studies offer many more vitals measurements than at-home testing devices do, including limb movements, brain waves and sleep stages. Therefore they are less likely to miss a diagnosis of sleep apnea; moreover they can detect central sleep apnea which occurs not due to airway collapse but rather when your brain doesn’t send the necessary signals to breathe regularly.
Sleep apnea sufferers experience difficulty breathing while asleep, leading to low oxygen levels and an increase in heart rate during restful slumber. This condition can have serious repercussions for quality of life, depression and even serious diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease; thus making early treatment essential. Consult a physician or specialist and see if an at-home sleep study would benefit you before receiving the prescription for your CPAP device to begin therapy immediately.
