If you think that you suffer from sleep apnea, there are a number of sleep apnea tests that your health care professional might recommend for you when determining a diagnosis. You should know that lots of people suffer from this condition and it’s important to have it diagnosed so that you can avoid any adverse effects of sleep apnea. You will likely find that once you undergo the necessary tests, however, you can begin a treatment that works for you and get back to sleeping well.
Polysomnography
This is a long word for one of the most common sleep apnea tests available to you. This test records brain activity and your heart rate and the lung function while you are sleeping. It will also take note of any movements that your eyes, arms and legs make throughout the night as well as record your oxygen levels and breathing patterns. This is used to test for sleep apnea and other sleep disorders that a person might experience.
Oximetry
This test monitors the oxygen in the blood. Usually, this test is done at home while you sleep and the patient uses a finger sleeve to test for blood oxygen level. Lower oxygen means a higher likelihood of sleep apnea. While this is a common test, it is usually used in conjunction with polysomnography to confirm the oximetry results.
Multiple Sleep Latency Test or MSLT
This is usually used to test the cause of daytime sleepiness and it measures how fast a person falls asleep by letting him sleep during the day. When a person doesn’t have a sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, it will usually take about 10 to 20 minutes to fall asleep, but for those who are suffering from a sleep disorder will likely fall asleep in less than 5 minutes.
Portable Cardiorespiratory Tests
This is one sleep apnea test that can be done at home and it measures the airflow and breathing patterns of a patient. These tests usually aren’t performed without a sleep evaluation and the supervision of a physician, however and they are usually done in conjunction with one or more of the other tests available.
If you think you suffer from sleep apnea, it is likely that you will have to take one or more of these tests to determine whether or not you have the condition and the severity of it and determine a form of treatment for your condition. The good news is that these tests are available for anyone and they don’t hurt at all, so if you think that you might have sleep apnea, it’s good to know that there are tests which can help you to diagnose your problem so that you can begin sleeping well again.
If you notice that you’re not sleeping well, or that your partner complains of your snoring all the time, it might be time to seek medical attention to see if you have sleep apnea. While there are typical warning signs of this disorder, a common symptom is snoring. Often, if you visit your health care professional and they suspect that you have this condition, they will send you for a sleep study and these are the people who will do the diagnosing or your condition.
Before you seek medical attention, however, you should know that sleep apnea is a condition where a person actually stops breathing in their sleep, which can cause them to suffocate while they are sleeping. What generally happens is the soft tissue in the mouth and throat cause a blockage to the airway, so even if a person with sleep apnea keeps breathing, they may not be getting enough oxygen to their blood. This can cause additional issues, such as heart and circulatory problems, so it is important to have sleep apnea properly diagnosed.
When you go to the doctor about your snoring problem, you should know that snoring is often just one warning sign or symptom of the condition and there are other signs which your doctor may take into consideration such as a thick neck. Often, sleep apnea occurs in men who have thick necks, so this is something your doctor may look for. Other warning signs include constant fatigue, even though you get a full 8 hours of sleep and obesity. For many, these are indicators that they are suffering from sleep apnea.
The two main causes of sleep apnea include enlarged tissue of the soft palette and uvula, or (the back part of the roof of the mouth and the tissue that hangs down in the middle of the back of the mouth) if these tissues aren’t generally enlarged, it may be that they over-relax when the person is sleeping, which causes these tissues to press on the airway and potentially block it.
If your health care professional recommends that you seek a sleep study, you will go to a place that specializes in watching your heart rate, breathing, eye movement, brain activity and the oxygen level in your blood while you sleep through the night. The process is painless and is the most accurate way to determine if you suffer from sleep apnea.
If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, depending on the severity, your health care professional may recommend that you use a machine while you sleep, which will help to ensure your body receives enough oxygen while you sleep and if you should stop breathing, it triggers an alarm to wake you and start you breathing on your own again. Your doctor may also recommend that you lose weight and do certain exercises that are said to strengthen the muscles in the soft palette and help to prevent them from over-relaxing.
Many people who have sleep apnea find that when they go on a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise in an effort to lose weight, in addition to changing the position in which they sleep helps them to get a better, quieter night of rest.
