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Failed Sleep Study
#1
Failed Sleep Study
Anyone ever flunk their sleep study?

That is, not be able to get to sleep to the satisfaction of the tech running it?

In my case, the tech refused to put a mask on me because I hadn't reached REM in five hours of fitful sleep. Since I didn't bring my kit, and my head was killing me and the nightmares were getting too bizarre, I left at 3AM to go get some sleep.

It was that event that confirmed I am 100% dependent on xPAP (not necessarily a good thing)... but it also triggered the thought of how many folk with really bad apnea have had the same experience?
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#2
RE: Failed Sleep Study
(06-13-2015, 10:26 AM)GWild Wrote: Anyone ever flunk their sleep study?

That is, not be able to get to sleep to the satisfaction of the tech running it?

In my case, the tech refused to put a mask on me because I hadn't reached REM in five hours of fitful sleep. Since I didn't bring my kit, and my head was killing me and the nightmares were getting too bizarre, I left at 3AM to go get some sleep.

It was that event that confirmed I am 100% dependent on xPAP (not necessarily a good thing)... but it also triggered the thought of how many folk with really bad apnea have had the same experience?


Hi GWild,
I don't know if there is a fail/pass, but I'm sure I failed. They were to do a split study on me. The first half of the night wired up without mask, then second half with a mask.

Well, as I tried to tell them, I probably wouldn't fall asleep right away, they just ignored me, and guess what...I didn't fall asleep till after the 5th hour, and only for
1 1/2 hours. They let me go home and had to be rescheduled.

I think if I had to depend on the sleep clinic , technicians, and sleep doctor and DME, I still wouldn't know much about sleep apnea. I sometimes think that because they do this so much and see the same thing over and over that they give little thought to the patient that suffers anxiety like I did at the time.

Now after 7 months, and the help I have received here, I have adapted well, and look back and wonder why I was so scared, but I have compassion for those that are new and facing the same hurdles...I just wish the medical profession did!
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#3
RE: Failed Sleep Study
We do two different studies here in BC Canada. My dr. told me to take medication. She said, it doesn't matter so much how you get to sleep, more that you get to sleep so we have something to measure.

They were certainly able to measure with me too. Without meds the incidents might have been higher, but they were high enough to get started.
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#4
RE: Failed Sleep Study
Sleeping drugs, tranqs are the answer, to get to sleep and make it through the titration without any major interruption.

For me, dosed on small amount of diazepam (2.5mg) and moderate dose of zolpidem-10 mg. This was a higher dosage-about double of that I would take when occasionally needed.

No regrets.

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#5
RE: Failed Sleep Study
If you are having nightmares, how could not be in REM?
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#6
RE: Failed Sleep Study
Because not all dreaming is REM-based.

Drugs may get you to sleep, but then the study is skewed. Have to put an asterisk by your name like Roger Maris' home run record.

I think the way they did this with me was the best way. I started with a home test. That gives a general idea of common apneic issues, and is enough to prescribe xPAP. Then, the prescription was for an APAP, which was set at 5-20. That allowed me to get used to the entire idea of having a mask on my face, BEFORE ever taking a full PSG/titration study. Then 2-3 weeks later, the PSG was done, and the range was set based on findings there.

Even so, the soft bed meant I was in pain most of the night, and did not sleep much. In a 5-hour study I slept about 2 hours. That study gets a lot more DIFFERENT data points than the APAP can, but using the APAP for weeks gets a lot MORE of the data points that it is capable of, so both seem to be valuable. One is a tiny sample of a wide variety of data, and the other is a large sample of a limited type of data.

Still the most effective part of the therapy was to do two things:

1) come here and learn about this
2) use SleepyHead to parse the data and make changes myself based on that data and understanding how to take advantage of it, with many thanks to those who went before me and shared their advice on this forum, the best tool in the whole damned arsenal (well, after the APAP). My AHI would have been twice what it is (1.44 270-day average) had I not tweaked things and had left it where the doc set it. And it still would be 55.7 if I hadn't gone into the therapy.
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#7
RE: Failed Sleep Study
TS: I'm looking for the like button for your post!
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#8
RE: Failed Sleep Study
First test for me was a bust. That was like ten years back. Doctor referred me to strip center sleep lab which was in a kind of run down building a couple of blocks from a hospital I would not choose to go to, in a not-good part of town (which was hardly reassuring). The sleeping facility itself resembled a slightly worn Motel 6 room.

Got hooked up and laid down at like 10:30. Totally unable to go to sleep. Was so uncomfortable I called the tech after about three really tortuous hours and told him that this was not going to work and wanted to go home to get some sleep (such as I could at that time) as I had to work the next day. He said if I left before completing six hours, the insurance folks would not consider it a completed test and would not reimburse the lab and so I would be on the hook for a grossly overpriced study. I said F it and just sat on the side of the bed for the next three hours.

The hospital I would prefer - the one in a good part of town - had a sleep center inside the hospital. I called the doctor's office the next morning and insisted on a hospital based sleep study there as well as some pharmaceutical assistance in getting to sleep - which I needed full time at that point anyway. That was a full night study followed the next week by a full night titration study. That went off without a hitch.

OMMOHY

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#9
RE: Failed Sleep Study
I failed my titration study. After finding a mask I was comfortable with laying down and nodding off -- immediately had an apnea episode followed by a full out sit up and pull off the mask panic attack. I was unable to calm myself enough to put the mask back on and lay down to sleep -- so ended up signing myself out.

With no titration study to work from -- I requested and was given an Auto CPAP. I have been 100% compliant with it since day one -- so all ended well.
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#10
RE: Failed Sleep Study
I'm usually pretty calm and didn't have any major issues on either of my night studies. However, my wife needed a Valium when she went in for her MRI and I'm sure she would need something for a sleep study if she needed to go in for one.

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