.Hi everyone.  I'm "The Man" and you don't want to be like me when you have a sleep study done.  When it comes to chasing ladies and being awesome, you want to be The Man, but when you go for your sleep study, don't be "The Man".  I hope that you can learn from my mistakes.  Allow me to introduce myself.

I am a 24 yr old 170 lb man ( I've been told that I look like I've lost weight recently).  I first asked my physician about 3-4 years ago about sleep apnea because I was tired a lot and I would fall asleep, sometimes for hours at a time, while studying for my college courses.  Sometimes, it just seemed like I would just lose interest in life because I just wanted to sleep.  My unhelpful physician told me with no consideration that I didn't have sleep apnea because people with sleep apnea are obese and i am skinny, as you can see.  For what it's worth, I have a huge tongue and I wonder if that could suggest sleep apnea.  It's so big, you can see an imprint of my front teeth on it.  In time since, I have been treated for depression and sexual difficulties ( Please spare me; I'm too young for this @#$% )  The depression has gotten better, but the doctors haven't been able to help me much at all with my second problem.  Quite frankly, I feel like I've been damned from having loving relationships with women and I highly resent it.

Finally, I did some more reading on sleep apnea and I found out that being obese is not a prerequisite for having sleep apnea.  I called and made an appointment to see a sleep specialist.  I think I was on his calender for over a week before I got to see him if memory serves me right.  I saw him near the end of February.  He said that based on what I said, that I get 8-9 hours of sleep almost every night and still fall asleep during the day, I may have sleep apnea and did I want to have a sleep study done?  I said yes and he said that they would need to get prior authorization from my insurance company and that it takes up to two weeks.  When they finally got it authorized, the doctor said that he wanted me to have my sleep study done at another clinic.  I called for an appointment last week ( end of March ), and they scheduled my appointment of April 28th, over four weeks later.  Mercifully, they called me two days ago and said that someone had canceled their appointment and would I like to have my study done that night, so of course I said yes, and so began The Man's comedy of errors.

I arrived at the clinic at 8:30 PM where I watched them wire up a young slender woman to their measuring devices.  I was introduced to the staff.  They seated me in a small room where they began attaching wires to my body.  I have an inflamed sciatica nerve in my left leg ( the nerve the runs from your hip to your feet.  As the lady attached wires to my leg ( to check for restless leg syndrome ), I felt pains in my leg from the sensitive nerve and I pleaded with her to be gentle.  Within a few minutes, I was almost tripping; I was certain that I was receiving electric shocks from the wires.  I glanced over my shoulder and saw that the machine was not even connected to electricity.  The Man is terribly afraid of being electrocuted ( Even just a mild prick from touching a door knob on a dry day can be terribly upsetting to me ).  I felt somewhat relieved after they were done with my sensitive legs and relaxed as they finished "wiring" me up.

Around 9:30, they led me into the bedroom and I laid down in bed and waited about 20 minutes for them to activate their equipment and get everything in order.  The whole time, I was nearly breaking a cold sweat as I was afraid of being "electrocuted" again.  I began to hallucinate;  I heard noise from imaginary "machines" under my pillow and I saw a flash come from the corner of the room while the technician was standing by my side.  I told her that I saw a flash and she assured me that there was no flash.

As you can imagine, despite my best efforts, I did not get much sleep that night.  Normally, I think of The Man as being good at relaxing and staying still and I almost never have insomnia, and I think that I did 'relax' and stay still, but my mind was so stirred up that I couldn't fall asleep.  I was 'supposed' to sleep at least two hours before 2 am and then at least 2 hours after 2 am so they could do a diagnostic study and a CPAP titration.  I don't think that I slept at all until about 1:30.  It was such a long night for The Man.  Of course, no CPAP titration was done.  One observation that I made was that as I relaxed and attempted to fall asleep, it seemed as if my breathing would become very shallow and almost(?) stop followed by several hard, deep breaths.  I started wondering if I was having apnea while I was still awake.

Upon awakening, of course The Man wanted to know as much as possible about the study, but the technician said that she was duty-bound to not tell The Man anything as only the doctor is allowed to do that.  She said that it takes up to 15 *business* days for the report to be prepared and sent to the referring physician.  The Man doesn't like intentionally being kept in the dark about matters concerning his health.  She did say ( without being prompted in any way ) that "it doesn't count if you do it while you're still awake", so I thought that maybe she was referring to the breathing experience I described above.  She said that I only slept about 2.5 hours the whole night, and frequently woke up from sleep, including six trips to the bathroom, several of which occurred before I slept at all, and also a couple times when they woke me up because a wire came loose.  She did say something about how I stopped breathing a few times, but she wasn't sure if it was enough for a diagnosis, but that the split night study was out of the question because I didn't sleep for two hours before 2 am.

Now, The Man, who is a very impatient man when it comes to having to wait weeks to get seen about by a doctor, must wait for a report and then for another physicians office appointment, and then possible up to two weeks for another insurance authorization and then four or more weeks for a CPAP titration study.  @#$%, I can't believe it takes so much @#$%ing time to get anything done around here.

Anyhow, the purpose of this post is two-fold.
1)  When you have your sleep study, don't be The Man.  Rest assured that the wires that they attach to your body are harmless.  Don't lose your mind and imagine that you are being electrocuted and then be unable to sleep to the point that you have to have a second sleep study.
2) Has anyone else had an experience like this to relate to?

Best regards, everyone!

How about only sleeping 42 minutes out of 6 hour bed time during a titration study and being brought back in for a second due to insufficient sleep time and only sleeping 98 minutes out of 6 hours bedtime the second titration study?

The two titrations together got me the necessary 2 hours of sleep time to qualify for CPAP.

Now, 18 months after starting CPAP I had to go thru a bi-level titration. Ha! Not so dumb this time around. Asked and received permission to take on 10 mg Ambien 45 minutes after lights out. THAT did the trick! I got in some 5 hours plus of sleep time for this titration!!!!

But, I have used Ambien at home on occasion and know that it is good for getting me to sleep and for getting me at least 4 hours of sleep. I wouldn't have taken it for the first time during a sleep or titration study as one never knows how one will really react to ANY medication.

BEFORE your next titration try a night or two of Ambien (even tho at home you don't have trouble going to sleep) just to make sure that it doesn't have a reverse effect and keep you awake. Or upset your stomach or something. And also ask your sleep doctor's permission to take an Ambien the night of this new titration. Most sleep labs and sleep docs allow it but ... better safe than sorry. Also ask him if they will have an Ambien on hand or if you must get a script from your family doctor for it. Some sleep labs can provide one Ambien if the sleep doctor includes it in the titration order. Others, you have to bring it from home despite perimssion from the sleep doctor to use it.

GOOD LUCK! (I appreciate your sense of humor!! It will get you a long way on your journey w/CPAP!)


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Some people are like Slinkies... Not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.
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If you sleep best on your side, as you hate sleeping on your back because your wife says you snore....

Sleep on your back...sleep where it will return your worst night's sleep.  

I slept on my side for 1st sleep study...just snoring was the diagnosis.
Although I dreaded it, I slept on my back for the second study...bam...full blown OSA with an O2 sat as low as 81%.


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RemStar Pro M-Series with C-Flex jamming 10 cm H20 down my piehole And finally getting a good night's sleep...every night!!!! I'm a 45 year old FMAWG...and proud of it.

The_Man,

Ok, you had me chuckling about you and your sleep study.    You would have been even more of a mess if there'd been a thunderstorm outside, huh?  

Most people don't get the split night study.  There's a certain protocol or criteria needed to do a split study.  But if a split wasn't done, that doesn't mean you don't have sleep apnea.  Most people don't sleep long enough in a sleep study for a split.  It's normal that sleep techs cannot discuss the condition with the patients, so don't take offense.  Some might give an indication, especially if you've slept the whole night and there's clearly severe sleep apnea.  But don't get hung up on the terms mild, moderate and severe when it comes to apnea, because there are many factors that go into evaluating the condition.  And yes, it gets aggrevating waiting for results.  But if you have sleep apnea, you've likely had it for awhile.  

Noone wishes you have sleep apnea.  But if you do, then I wanna read about your exploits during the titration!  


Linda


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When I started my sleep study, the tech said they would wake me up if my OSA was bad enough and strap a CPAP to me. Two hours later, they woke me up and put me on a CPAP.

Despite this, the sleep tech at the place I had my sleep study made me sign a waiver stating that I was fine to drive myself around given the severity of my OSA, and that I didn't want a taxi from there.   (I had never heard about this, and I don't know if this is common - so I was definitely surprised.)