Your sleep study

Obstructive sleep apnea is a common condition that causes excessive daytime sleepiness and difficulty concentrating during the day. Common symptoms include snoring, stopping breathing at night, waking up throughout the night, and feeling tired throughout the day. It has important implications for your cardiovascular health and risk of chronic disease in the future. We belive it is underrecognised and undertreated in Australia.

The only way to accurately diagnose sleep apnea, and to determine whether snoring is related to obstructive sleep apnea or 'simple snoring', is the perform an overnight sleep study. This is a complex test which measures a large number of parameters throughout your sleep, include brainwave activity, muscle activity, breathing, and movements. Our sleep studies are applied by a very experienced sleep scientist with Masters degree in neurophysiology.

You will be booked in for an appointment at Burwood Specialists in the late afternoon, where Jenny will apply the home sleep apnea kit for the sleep study. This includes multiple electrodes placed on your head, chin, face, chest, and abdomen. You will feel and look a bit silly but it is important to acquire all of this information to accurately diagnose sleep disorders.

With our set up the only parameters that differ in a laboratory sleep study is that we do not have a video camera to observe your sleep, which is important if the clinical question is related to abnormal movements during sleep. Most patients will be suitable for a home sleep study, which has the advantage of improved patient comfort. Disadvantages include the small risk of data loss if a lead is unattached. Jenny's expertise and experience in applying these studies makes that rare.

You can be referred directly for a home sleep study test by your General Practitioner if you meet certain criteria which makes the diagnosis of at least moderate obstructive sleep apnea likely. These are provided on our referral form.

In patients with complex comorbidities a laboratory study is recommended, and Dr Holmes will facilitate this when appropriate.