Adult Sleep Study

A vari­ety of tests includ­ing Polysomno­gram, Mul­ti-Sleep Laten­cy Test ( MSLT) and Main­te­nance of Wake­ful­ness Test (MWT) are all pos­si­ble sleep stud­ies your physi­cian can order to eval­u­ate your sleep pat­terns. The DMG Sleep Cen­ter is made up of pri­vate bed­rooms and are sim­i­lar to typ­i­cal hotel rooms, with pri­vate bath­rooms avail­able for show­er­ing after the study is com­plet­ed. The rooms are sup­plied with pil­lows, blan­kets, tow­els, wash­cloths and toiletries.

The Study

• A typ­i­cal Polysomno­gram includes the fol­low­ing measures:
  • Brain waves (elec­trodes placed on the scalp)
  • Eye move­ments (elec­trodes placed by the eyes)
  • Chin mus­cle tone (elec­trodes placed on near the chin)
  • Heart rate (elec­trodes placed on the chest)
  • Leg move­ments (elec­trodes placed on the legs)
  • Air­flow (sen­sor placed near the nose and mouth)
  • Breath­ing effort (two elas­tic belts placed around chest and abdomen)
  • Oxy­gen sat­u­ra­tion lev­el (small sen­sor attached to the fin­ger or ear lobe)
  • Audio and dig­i­tal video recording

Why is it nec­es­sary to record the above functions?

While you are asleep, the body func­tions dif­fer­ent­ly than dur­ing wake­ful­ness. Dis­turbed sleep such as paus­es in breath­ing, snor­ing and lack of sleep con­sol­i­da­tion can inter­fere with day­time activ­i­ties, cause exces­sive day­time sleepi­ness and pos­si­bly lead to seri­ous health problems.

How can I sleep or use the bath­room with all the sensors?

By pro­vid­ing a com­fort­able hotel like envi­ron­ment, we strive to make your stay at the Sleep Lab a pleas­ant expe­ri­ence. While many indi­vid­u­als wor­ry that they will not be able to fall asleep dur­ing the test, most do and we usu­al­ly obtain an ade­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion of your sleep pat­terns. In addi­tion, the sen­sors and wires will not inter­fere with your abil­i­ty to use the bathroom.

Will the sen­sors hurt?

No. This is a pain­less and non-inva­sive test­ing pro­ce­dure. Paste is applied to your skin and scalp to keep the elec­trodes in place, but it is eas­i­ly removed with soap and warm water.

What is CPAP titration?

For CPAP (Con­tin­u­ous Pos­i­tive Air­way Pres­sure) titra­tion you will have the wires that were used for your diag­nos­tic study. Also you will be asked to sleep with a CPAP mask over your nose. The mask deliv­ers room air to keep your air­way open. This test is used to deter­mine the opti­mal pres­sure which will effec­tive­ly treat your sleep apnea and snoring.

What is mul­ti­ple sleep laten­cy test (MSLT)?

An MSLT is a day­time sleep test which is some­times per­formed in con­junc­tion with an overnight sleep study. The test con­sists of a series of day­time naps which helps us bet­ter under­stand your sleep prob­lem. Sen­sors and elec­trodes are used to record infor­ma­tion sim­i­lar to the polysomno­gram. Naps are tak­en every two hours through­out the day. Please bring some­thing to read or work to keep you occu­pied in between the naps. A tele­vi­sion and a DVD play­er are avail­able. Plan to spend the entire day pos­si­bly until 9:00 pm in the Sleep Center.

Is the sleep study cov­ered by insurance?

Most insur­ance will cov­er sleep stud­ies. We do rec­om­mend that you check with your insur­ance provider to be sure this pro­ce­dure is a paid ben­e­fit under your insur­ance plan.

Pri­or to the sleep study

1. Please arrive on time for your appoint­ment. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, if you are late you study might need to be rescheduled.
2. Com­plete any required forms/​ques­tion­naires pri­or to your study date.
3. Avoid caf­feine or stim­u­lants for 12 hours before your sched­uled time of arrival at the Sleep Cen­ter, unless pre­scribed by the doctor.
4. Main­tain your nor­mal sleep sched­ule until your test date. Please refrain from nap­ping on the day of your study.
5. Make sure your skin and hair are clean. Please do not use any hair prod­ucts or lotions on the night of the study.

What to bring to the sleep center?

1. Com­plet­ed ques­tion­naire, your med­ica­tion list, any doc­tors’ orders, pre­scrip­tions or refer­ral forms that you doc­tor has giv­en to you. Present them to the tech­nol­o­gist upon arrival.
2. Your insur­ance card(s) and dri­ver’s license or ID.
3. You might bring your own pil­low and com­forter if that makes you more comfortable.
4. Bed­clothes are nec­es­sary. Please wear some­thing com­fort­able such as gym shorts, loose lounge pants and a t‑shirt or pajamas.
5. Any per­son­al toi­letries and a change of clothes for after the study.
6. Any med­ica­tions, both pre­scrip­tion and over the counter that you usu­al­ly take pri­or bed­time. Tech­nol­o­gists are unable to dis­pense any medications.
7. If you require a snack before bed­time, plan to bring one with you. Do not bring din­ner since you must be ready to begin test­ing when you arrive. If you are stay­ing for the day­time nap stud­ies, break­fast and lunch will be provided.

Please do not bring any valu­ables with you to the Sleep Center.