Can a person have good nights (little or no apneas) and bad nights (lots of apneas)? I ask because I have all the classic symptoms of sleep apnea (can't stay awake in meetings for movies and have to fight to stay awake while driving more than 1/2 an hour and much more, etc). BUT, last night I had a sleep study done. I absolutely could not get to sleep (I usually fall asleep within 5 minutes). I did hit REM sleep for 11 minutes around midnight but woke up. Then I was wide awake until about 3am. I slept fitfully for about an hour. The tech said they noticed that I would hit REM, my oxygen would drop from 97 to 95 and I would wake up. This happened repeatedly. It was supposed to be a split test if I dropped below 90 or had more than 40 apneas in two hours. Of course, I didn't sleep for two hours but needless to say they didn't try the cpap on me. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I am perplexed because I thought I had a way to take care of my sleep problems and more importantly my daytime problems. Now it appears that isn't the case. Sorry for the length.


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GTBill

Welcome GTBill

I'm told that the results of a sleep test are accurate, regardless of daily variances. That is, if they find apnea in one valid sleep session, there is little you can do day-to-day that would result in a false-positive or a false-negative. Your situation is a bit different however as you didn't sleep long enough to get baseline data. I suspect the sleep center will tell you that you need to be retested.

Getting a sleep study is stressful: sleeping in an alien location, all those wires, and the general anxiety of hearing that you may have a diagnosable disease. Did you follow their directions for coming into the study: no naps, drugs or caffeine during the day. Did you stick to a rather normal routine that would result in falling asleep quickly? I know there are others behaviors you need to follow as well.

Do your best to work with your sleep center and docs to ensure you get a valid test. Perhaps a better solution for you might be a home test. While not as thorough as a typical split night sleep study, it has a solid track record for diagnosing apnea.

Good luck to you Bill. Many here are happy to answer your questions and support you towards your goal of restful sleep and improving health.

Pidginbil

Some folks take Ambien along in order to sleep better in a strange environment when having the sleep-test.