How To Perform a Home Sleep Apnea Test

Everybody wants a good night’s sleep, preferably one with little tossing and turning. But it’s not always that easy for most people, especially if you have difficulty breathing at night. 

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep-related breathing disorder that causes short pauses in breathing during sleep. 

Well, sleep is more like a reset button. We get to relax and drain the day’s fatigue for a fresher, more rejuvenating morning. All muscles in the human body tend to relax, including the muscles that help keep the throat open so air can freely flow into the lungs. 

But because we still have to breathe even when we are asleep, the throat usually remains open enough to let air pass through. 

However, people with narrow throats have difficulty breathing as they sleep because when their throat muscles relax, tissue closes in and blocks the airways causing loud snores as air is squeezed in through the narrowed or blocked airway.

Apart from snoring heavily as soon as you fall asleep, there are a few more telltale signs of obstructive sleep apnea. For starters, your loud snoring may be interrupted by periods of silence as your breathing stops. This temporary cessation of breathing is what is essentially referred to as apnea. It is quickly followed by a snort as you wake up gasping for air.

Worse still, the ordeal repeats throughout the night. 

As you can tell, obstructive sleep apnea is quite an abrasive syndrome. It causes insomnia, restlessness, morning headaches, daytime drowsiness, and a groggy feeling in the morning. It constantly interrupts your sleep. 

Therefore, it is not uncommon for sleep apnea to snowball into a life-threatening cardiovascular disease. In fact, it’s increasingly being associated with coronary heart disease. So, if you think you may have sleep apnea, it’s important to get a diagnosis as soon as possible to avoid this eventuality. 

So, how can you tell you have obstructive sleep apnea? 

Well, people with sleep apnea hardly ever know they stopped breathing at some point during the night. The honors usually fall on a significant other or a close family member. It’s no wonder that some couples opt for separate bedrooms; waking up to loud snores, gasps for air, and snorts is not always a small matter. 

A visit to the doctor’s office would inevitably end up in a small Q&A session about your symptoms. The doctor may recommend either an overnight sleep study, a polysomnogram, or effective sleep apnea diagnostic devices

Polysomnography 

Polysomnography measures and records your vital functions as you sleep, including your brain activity, your heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen levels, body, and eye movements to accurately diagnose most sleep disorders, including sleep apnea. 

This overnight sleep study performed in a lab or sleep center is the gold standard for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea. 

However, how often do you come across these sleep centers? 

There’s a pretty good chance most people with sleep apnea do not have easy access to sleep centers, and even if they do, they are often struck at the bottom of long waitlists. At over $1000, polysomnogram tests are pretty steep too. 

So, with the costs and inconvenience associated with in-lab polysomnograms, it’s clear we’ve always needed alternatives. 

Thanks to increased demand for speedy diagnosis of suspected sleep apnea cases and advancements in technology, sleep apnea diagnostic devices, in contrast, have simplified patients’ access to sleep apnea care. 

Home Sleep Apnea Test 

A home sleep apnea test is a test that can help diagnose obstructive sleep apnea from the comfort of a patient’s own home. The test basically involves home polysomnography equipment in the form of a portable breathing monitor you simply wear overnight. 

As you sleep, the small wrist-mounted device continuously monitors your breathing throughout the night to detect and measure any pauses in your breathing. 

Sounds easy, right? 

It is. More so when the test calculates a sleep apnea severity score based on the number of pauses in breathing during a patient’s true sleep time. We squirm a lot in bed before we eventually fall asleep, so using a patient’s true sleep time instead of hours in bed significantly improves the accuracy of the diagnosis. 

Benefits of Home Sleep Apnea Tests

The complexities of an overnight sleep study in a lab make a sleep apnea monitor at home quite convenient. A home sleep apnea test makes keeping track of your vital signs as you sleep a piece of cake. 

Besides the convenience, home polysomnography equipment has a few more advantages than traditional polysomnography. 

Affordability

An overnight sleep study is a lot more complex than using a sleep apnea monitor at home.  Polysomnography measures more sleep-related vitals, including your brain waves and leg and eye movements, to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea accurately. 

On the other hand, home polysomnography equipment only keeps an eye on your breathing and oxygen levels. The lack of detail makes it incredibly cheaper than an overnight sleep study. 

However, it is startling to note that simple sleep apnea diagnostic devices are just as effective even without the bells and whistles accompanying overnight sleep studies. 

Comfort

East or west, home’s best. However comfortable a sleep lab may be, it’s not always easy to forsake the comfort of your bed. For some people, it’s even harder to sleep while strapped to tons of sensors and electrodes. 

The fact that there are technicians monitoring you as you sleep doesn’t make things any easier either. If you feel this way, using a sleep apnea monitor at home would be best for you. 

Speed

Sleep clinics often have pretty long waitlists. Finding a sleep clinic and scheduling an appointment with a sleep specialist for the overnight sleep study might take a while. In this case, a home sleep apnea test comes in handy. All you have to do is pick up the testing kit from your local pharmacy store or have it delivered to you at home, and you can administer the test yourself at home. 

Guidelines of Using a Home Sleep Apnea Test 

A spot-on diagnosis is pivotal for the effective treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Accordingly, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), an authority on the matter, has laid down a few guidelines for using a home sleep apnea test to diagnose sleep apnea. 

First off, after taking the test, only a licensed medical practitioner can interpret the raw data, diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, and prescribe the best treatment plan suitable for the patient. 

Also, a home sleep apnea test is not appropriate for the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea in patients with underlying health conditions or any other sleep disorder, for that matter. In this case, the patient will benefit from the accuracy of a thorough overnight sleep study. 

As we mentioned earlier, all sleep tests measure different sleep metrics to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea accurately. Polysomnography tests measure a whole lot of vitals hence their impeccable accuracy and comprehensiveness. Therefore, at the bare minimum, a home sleep test should record airflow, blood oxygen levels, and breathing effort. 

That said, avoid taking naps, caffeine, alcohol, and late or heavy meals on the day of the test as they have a pretty significant bearing on the accuracy of the test.  

An accurate diagnosis plays a pretty decisive role in the treatment of disease. So be sure to explore all your options and choose a home sleep apnea test that is right for you.