OK, before my first study I got very little information about what was going to happen. Just a letter with directions, to bring comfy clothes, and not take any meds. I try to be an informed consumer, so I started searching the web and learned a lot. I was just not prepared for how many wires and belts there would be. The Tech did explain that they were recording all my movements, and taping me. I wasn't asked about how I usually sleep (on my stomach). I was allowed to take OTC pain pills for my arthritis, but I wasn't allowed to take the medication I usually take for sleep. As a result, I felt like I was in a wrestling match the first part of the night! I was tossing and turning, and couldn't keep still. She finally came in and gave me a sleeping pill. If this was Ok, then why not let me take the meds I usually take?

I just got a phone call from the sleep doctor saying I had significant apnea, I needed to go for a titration study and the lab would call me. No numbers or other results were discussed.

The second time for titration was better. They had me watch a video that was in several parts. The first few parts were what I should have watched the first time! The rest was on using a mask. She said the apnea was usually better if you sleep on your side, which I tried. I did sleep better, but awoke several times. I must have been moaning a one point, because she asked me if I was in pain. I said no just uncomfortable and she said that I could turn over on my stomach. I think the mattress was a memory foam, because I got hot and took off all the covers. The exhaust from the mask was kind of nice blowing on me, kind of like a fan.

The facility was nice. Bedrooms with TV and double beds. The staff was very nice. I could read for awhile before I went to sleep (which I usually do). The pressure was changed remotely, so they didn't have to come into the room. Someone just needs to perfect wireless technology for these machines! I think they would get a much better picture of how people really sleep.

I'm waiting on the doctor to compare the results to the first study. Hopefully, I can go in to see him to discuss everything before I get a machine.

The sleep lab where I have my studies done is very nice. It has several large bedrooms and I know that other people are there on the same nights I'm there, but I never hear or see them except in the morning when we're leaving.

So far my experiences have been good. Here are the things I really appreciate when I'm there:

1. I've had the same nurse all three times so I feel like she's an old buddy and it makes me comfortable.
2. They have me come in around 8:00 and just relax in the bedroom for a while before we get started.
3. The rooms have televisions with sleep timers and lots of magazines.
4. They give me a bedtime snack if I want one.
5. All the rooms have large bathrooms with showers so I can clean up in the morning before I leave.
6. The sticky stuff they use comes out of my hair very easily when I wash it. (the stuff the neurologist used was like butch wax mixed with Elmer's glue)
7. The beds are doubles or queens and the heads and feet can be raised and lowered. (but for the sleep test have to be flat)

What I would like to do differently:

It's always difficult for me to fall asleep, even at home. The best way for me to do that is to read in bed until I get sleepy, or put my headphones on and listen to music. At the lab, they will let me do those things for a while, but then they want me to turn the lights off and get busy sleeping. I spend most of the night tossing and turning and staring into the darkness. It should be more like the home schedule and routine.

Can a wireless technology be used for the tests? I change positions a lot at night and often during the night the nurse has to come in and fix my leads that have popped off because I'm tangled in the wires. I think one of the reasons I don't sleep well at the lab is that even in my sleep I'm sort of aware and trying to be careful of the wires when I'm turning.

SnoozeHunter

In my previous post I was thinking about the facility itself, the staff, and the way they do the sleep studies. I'm very satisfied with all of that. Where I think big improvement is needed is in patient education and communication of results. I don't want to give the impression that I don't think my doctor is good. I like him as a physician and he's a nice guy. However, I leave the follow-ups with more questions than answers but I don't think of the questions until later.

I would like for the doctor to make copies of the reports for me, including the graphs, without my asking for them. When I go in to see him following the sleep study, I want him to sit down with me and go over all of the numbers and graphs on the report and explain what everything means. And not just the terms, but what it means that I have this many centrals, and no rem sleep, and why he is or isn't concerned different elements of the results. I got much more information from the RPSGT over the phone when I called asking questions than any time I've ever talked with the physician. If the physician doesn't have time to thoroughly go over the results with patients, maybe the sleep lab should hire more RPSGTs and let them talk to patients.

I haven't wanted to bug the people at my sleep lab. Well, truthfully, I have been afraid they'll think I'm just being a paranoid pain in the neck or a hypochondriac. I am so thankful for this forum and especially for sleepydave for answering my questions so thoroughly and patiently. It's given me more confidence to go back now and ask my doc some more questions and ask for a re-titration. But I think it's sad that I had to go to someone outside my sleep lab for information.

SnoozeHunter

Too little information is what I had at first, too. They said there would be "some wires." Yeah. Right. Didn't know I was going to be wired up like a human robot. How do you expect me to sleep in all this?? No answer. Then the bed -- or what passed for a bed. When I got in it, I immediately sunk -- it felt like almost to the floor. I am used to a firm mattress and this was like my worst nightmare of a motel bed. Anything but firm, it was like lying down on a big marshmallow. Did I mention that I move frequently in my sleep? Well, I do, but I couldn't. Not in that bed. Trying to turn over on my side was like swimming against the tide in a giant vat of molasses. Then the wires -- tug them this way and that, I couldn't get comfortable. For God's sake, ain't there some way to do this wirelessly???!!!! They have wireless everything else, but not where they need it!

Finally fell asleep, after two hours of toss and turn, then seemed like no time before the tech (a really sweet gal) was waking me up, to put the machine on. I had chosen the mask earlier -- a Breeze pillow mask. Now try to sleep in it for the first time ever. Seemed like another two hours before I went to sleep again. Woke me up once more and wanted me to sleep on my back (I'm a regular side-sleeper). Went back to sleep quicker this time, because I was groggy. Had a nice, dreamless sleep until they woke me up. The tech let me sleep an extra hour. Told me they had four hours of study -- plenty to determine treatment. Had something like 50 episodes per hour and pressure of 11 stopped my snoring. Been on that ever since, with no problems, except some mask issues, which I have solved now.

But I hope I never have to go through that again, unless they improve it a lot.


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Larry