Are any of the members here sleep technicians? Have any of you considered becoming a sleep techician? Does anyone know what kind of training is required or what the average salary is? Seems like it would be an in-demand job....also pretty rewarding and interesting.


kim

Hi Kimisita,

I'm not a sleep tech.  But I started an office job recently at a new sleep study center.  

I've learned that originally no training was required, and some sleep study centers may still do on-the-job training, and perhaps have you go for an intensive one or two week training course.  But I've also learned that this may change, more education may be required.  But it would be worth asking any sleep study center near you.  As I said, many have on-the-job training, and they may pay for it if you promise to work there for a specified amount of time (and if you leave the job early, you might have to pay for that training).  

It's a good job if you don't mind the hours.  Typically they work 12 hour shifts for 3 days a week.  If you're really lucky, the sleep labs may schedule the 3 days in a row, giving you a super long weekend off, but not all do.  I'm not sure of the salaries, but I understand they pay pretty well.  I live in Maryland and online I can find salary ranges for all kinds of jobs in different regions of the state.  Your state might have something like that online.

I've found some differences.  At some labs, there's an overnight sleep tech, but some other tech will "score" the study the following day.  There, the sleep tech runs the polysommography, monitors the patients, attaches all the wires and stuff, reattaches them if they come loose, etc.  They watch the graphs throughout the night to see if things are running smoothly.  And when they do the titration study, they may have the patient change different masks.  

But some sleep study centers, and I understand more and more do this, the overnight sleep tech also does the scoring.  This is done where I work.  By scoring, I mean that as they monitor the polysommography on the computer, they will evaluate what they see and note which are apneas, hypopneas, centrals, and other aspects of the studies.  In the other places, the daytime tech will do that.  The computer doesn't automatically identify what is an apnea, etc.  (there are some new software programs that do, but they aren't so reliable and sleep labs don't use them)  The tech who scores, reviews the squiggly lines, and from certain criteria they will identify which are apneas, hypopneas, centrals, etc.  The computer will then add them all up and create the averages.  The sleep tech will prepare the summary sleep study report, and a medical director will review it and sign off on it.  

Where I work, the techs arrive at 7pm.  The patients arrive either 8 or 9 pm, depending on the schedule.  Typically one tech will handle two patients.  Then the patients are woken around 5:30am and the techs leave by 7am.  Those jobs are in demand, yes, but mostly because the hours are not for everyone.  I've heard of some sleep apnea patients going on to becoming sleep techs, because of their interest.  I think that's great, because they have a special understanding that a non-sleep apneac would have.  

If you're interested in a sleep tech job, you might contact the sleep study centers near you and ask if they have a training program.


Linda


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