good-sleep

Diagnosing Sleep Apnea

Diagnosing sleep apnea should commence when the possible sleep apnea symptoms occur. You need to immediately seek an appointment with your doctor for assessment and possible series of exams to confirm that you really have it. Generally, to diagnose it involves the following:

  • History taking. This is the first step the doctor does. You will be asked about the manifestations and also about other related questions like your family, how you sleep and you function during the day. Through this also your doctor will be able to know how loudly and often you snore or choking sounds during sleep. The next step or steps greatly depend on the answers.
  • Diagnosing sleep apnea also includes undergoing physical examination. This would include inspection of vital body parts and areas such as your mouth, nose, and the throat for extra or large tissues.
  • Sleep study will also be conducted. It said to be the most accurate test to diagnose sleep apnea because it can capture what happens with your breathing while asleep. It is usually done in a sleep center or sleep lab thus you have to spend time, like stay overnight in the sleep center.
  • Polysomnogram (PSG) known to be as the most common study used for diagnosing sleep apnea. This method is painless, all you have to do is to go to sleep and the sensors placed on the scalp, face, chest, limbs and finger will be recorded. The sensors will be checked by the staff of the hospital during the entire duration of the test and that is one whole night. This method records brain activities, eye movements, and other muscle activities like breathing, heart rate, how much air moves in and out of the lungs while you are at sleep, and the amount of oxygen in your blood. The results of this method in diagnosing sleep apnea will be submitted to the specialist who will review it to know if you have a sleep apnea and how severe it is. When confirmed, the next phase would be to devise a treatment plan suitable for you.

Diagnosing sleep apnea confirms if you have the condition or not as well as aide you and your doctor to plan the next course of actions.