hi another newbie, have sat down and just about read the whole board, didnt realize that sleep apnea was that common, anyway off to my story and some questions,

wife who had sleeping problems, was telling doc about me, of putting up with me, snoring, stopping breathing, , then shake all over , then start breathing again,night after night  for untold yrs, (sounds like all the symptoms) got me right in on a sleep study,

had my sleep study done a 6 1/2hr event,, went horrible,Im already a finicky sleeper, toss and turn type,  couldnt sleep , too warm(Im a cold sleeper 65F or less and the tech had things turned down as far as they could), cold feet,(yet I was hot everywhere else,so Im moving legs forever trying to get feet warm and wrapped up in covers ) O/2 sensor  below nose pulled the skin just enough that it was like I had a cold and couldnt breath through nose hardly at all, and the freeking little O2 sensor on the finger drove me nuts , of the light  I would have my hand up on my chest then like wake up with a red led flashlight in my face,   . let alone with the sensor under my nose driving me nuts , I tossed and turned for most of the night, last time I saw the clock,(I could illuminate the clock with the LED flashlight on my finger ) was 2am, and got woke up at 4:30am,
while the tech , said after I finally dropped off, she got enough to say I had a problem with shallow breathing for sure, half breaths but never said anything on apneas and the doc would fill me in,  and that I WOULD be back for getting the setting for a machine,  

right now I`m  just going nuts    waiting to go back to doc for the interpetation,

OK, now,

can they get a accurate study in just 2 1/2 hrs? of so called sleep,

and, anyone heard anything on shallow breathing, (since I have not seen this mentioned in other threads)

thanks
sunshiner (going nutz waiting,   )

Hi Sunshiner,

You got me looking at our resources for any reference of the term shallow breathing.
Doesn't appear much, you are right.
But it does appear in this link about OSA by the University of Maryland Medical Center.  Shallow breathing is referred to midway in the list:

Click here for link

I don't know enough to say if 2 and a half hours of sleep is sufficient for the sleep study results.  I'm sure someone will chime in with the right answer.
But I thought I heard or read somewhere that a short amount of time, maybe 3 hours, is all that's needed, not sure.

Going nuts, eh?  Yeah, it's hard waiting.
Be sure to get a copy of the sleep study report after the whole thing is done.  (You might be able to get the first study results before the second)
The second part where they test you with cpap is called a titration study.
I've heard there are length of sleep guidelines in order to do the titration study, both for results and for insurance.

Hang in there.  Hopefully your second part is scheduled soon.  Keep us posted as to  how it goes.


Linda

Isn't shallow breathing a hypopnea?

You'd think they would be more careful about their terminology...javascript:emoticon('%23-o')

As far as how long it takes to get an accurate diagnosis, I think it depends on the individual case.  When I had my sleep study, I fell asleep right away (after 15 minutes I think), and just 93 minutes later the tech woke me up to begin titration study.  Turned out I had 198 osa's in just 93 minutes and my O2 sat. fell to 67%.  My study wasn't planned as a split study, but the tech said my apnea was so severe that he felt it best to go ahead and do the titration.   So in my case 93 minutes was plenty of time to get the data they needed.  I hope everything works out well for you.

never got to see the whole study results,

the doc essentially said, you have a index of 54,,,not good, actually a very severe problem yadayada,,,,your oxygen went down to 70,,not good ect,

you had 114 hypopneas an hr, not good, looks on down slaps folder shut, and then he went into overdrive,

gonna get you in asap for the tritration , so you can get on that machine right away,, went out of the room saying he was getting the nurse to call and get me in ect, ,,,,last I saw of him,

nurse came in telling of doc having her , getting me in ahead of others ect,

would have been nice to have seen the report, maybe later when I go back,

go for tritration tues,,

well at least some news is better than no news,,,,

Sunshiner,

When I went to my GP for my results of my first sleep study, they had a hard time revewing the results with me and could not give me any concrete answers. I called the next day and picked up a copy of my study results from them and then researched the info here on these boards. I went to my 2nd study on Tuesday and am intrested on how they will interperate the results of this one!!!