Polysomnography, also known as a sleep study, is a kind of test done to diagnose sleep scrutinized. Polysomnography is done at hospitals or sleep centers to treat the people who cannot sleep at night and stay awake during their week shifts. These people are generally lethargic during the daytime and go for sleep treatments. Polysomnography is not only used for the diagnosis of sleep disorders but also done on the person. has been diagnosed with the disorder before. It contains a proper course of medications and other treatment methods to treat people properly.
Why is sleep study done?
It is a technology that studies the different stages and cycles of your sleep deprivation. It fixes the frequent episodes of your disrupted sleep.
The general process of sleep study starts when rapid eye movement( REM) of a person becomes slow or gets out of working condition. The monitors and other equipment are used for fixing the sleepwalk cycle and other patterns of sleeping.
A person’s eyes do not move back and front rapidly during NREM, contrary to the last stage where the person underwent REM. During REM mostly people are dreaming, that's why people with sleep disorders are not able to forget their dreams. Sleep study repairs the NREM and REM for the person.
People normally go through at least 90 minutes of REM and NREM cycles during the night while sleeping. But people with sleep disorders can’t have full circles of REM and rather have disrupted half-seen dreams.
Why does a doctor recommend you polysomnography or sleep study
- Sleep apnea or other sleep-related breathing disorder- In this disorder a person goes through frequent bouts of disrupted breathing while a person is sleeping.
- Periodic limb movement disorder. In this disorder, a person often found extending and twisting legs throughout the night. This also happens due to leg movement syndrome.
- Narcolepsy. A person experiencing uncertain sleep fits along with extraordinary drowsiness during the daytime.
- REM sleep behavior disorder. A person goes into the condition of imitating the dreams while sleeping.
- Unusual behaviors during sleep. A test is done when a person creates unusual rhythmic movements while sleeping like sleepwalking etc.
- Unexplained chronic insomnia. If you are not able to sleep or rest your body consistently, the doctor might recommend this test for you.
Risks
There are not many risks associated with Sleep study or Polysomnography. It is painless, the major damage it can cause is rashes on the skin. Otherwise, you are good to go.
What you can expect
As mentioned above it’s a painless process. You can go to the doctor after staying overnight and you will be treated harmlessly. You can take your sleeping patterns, capture data of sleeping if you have any however, they test from head to toe before actually starting the treatment. Mentioned below are some of the points are taken Care of while a person goes for Polysomnography or sleep study
- Captured brain waves
- Eye and leg movements and Breathing pattern
- Blood oxygen level.
- Body posture.
- Chest and stomach movements.
- Limbs movement.
- Snoring noises and other noises if you make any.