Home sleep study test

the pulmonologists I work with strongly prefer polysomnograms in the sleep lab, if the patient feels that they will not be able to sleep, they may consider a sleep aide. They usually only order home studies as a last resort. That's just what I've observed.

the pulmonologists I work with strongly prefer polysomnograms in the sleep lab, if the patient feels that they will not be able to sleep, they may consider a sleep aide. They usually only order home studies as a last resort. That's just what I've observed.

Sleeping pills may make the study invalid or give an unclear picture of the patient's condition. The insurance may also refuse to pay if the study was done under a medication for a drug induced sleep.

Some of the home care testing machines are very sophisticated. Some people may not need the whole sleep lab setting. Only a trained and educated physician in sleep medicine can make that determinination based on how the patient presents, how they answer the questions, what the problem that is being ruled in or out is and what pre-exisiting medical conditions. And, it can also depend on the way the billing for services and insurance (or lack of) are set up which can either be a benefit to the patient or to the doctor.

Not exactly, neither ambien or lunesta affect sleep apnea, although they do have weird side effects (sleep walking/talking, acting out dream etc.) but anti-depressants, anti-anxiety pills can cause respiratory suppresion and are therefore not used during sleep studies. Although if they are checking for parasomnias, they would not use a sleep aide. And this may be a state to state thing, but here, if the initial sleep study shows obstructive sleep apnea, but the patient needs to come back for a sleep titration study (as they need at least 4 hours on CPAP) they have to have a technologist attended titration study to qualify for equipment and for most insurance companies to pay for it.

I would check with the sleep lab about ANY medications, OTC or prescription, to see what they do allow.

Many machines are now auto titrating (APAP) and many insurances do allow these. Some patients may have this study done in the hospital near the end of their stay. The program card is downloaded and it shows what the patient required t/o the night. You'll be seeing more of this in the future with new protocols in place for hospital admissions and especially those for surgery. The patient can be observed, diagnosed and educated easily. Sending a patient home, waiting for them to see their PCP who may or may not be well versed in sleep apnea and who may not give them the referral to a sleep lab is a hit and miss process with a lot of misses.

Thanks for the info!

Interesting! Self titrating CPAP! Never heard of that one.

On top of being a Registered Nurse I am also a Registered Polysomnographic Technologist. I worked in a sleep lab for four years during which time I performed sleep studies and scored sleep studies. I can tell you from my experience working in the sleep lab that a portable sleep study is far less accurate than a full polysomnography.

The advantage of having your sleep study performed in a laboratory is that you will have someone available to replace any sensors that come off during the night. I can not tell you how many portable sleep studies I have seen come back without any usable information.