Last night, I completed a sleep study. They connected me to an EEG and EKG. They also measured my breathing and monitored me all night through video and audio. The sleep tech explained that they were not allowed to tell me what the results were, so I have to wait for the specialist to contact me in a few weeks. In the mean time, I’m wondering what the sleep study could possibly reveal about my sleep and general well-being.
Edit: For years, I have been waking up feeling exhausted. It takes me hours to get going in the morning. They were concerned I might have sleep apnea. However, when I was getting hooked up, the sleep tech told me that they look for much more than just sleep apnea.
They usually look for how long you’re in each stage of sleep, how well you oxygenate, heart patterns, and awakenings. All of these things, if not working correctly, cause us to get poor sleep and lose grey matter in our brain.
Apnea is really about oxygen delivery which can be hindered by something like our tongue, or our chest (obstructive sleep apnea), or even our brain not communicating properly (called central sleep apnea).
We can also have arm and leg twitching which wakes us up. Heart issues can play a role as well. There are others but I can’t remember them off the top of my head right now.