Sleep Apnea... something so serious

[Cookie]

This is definitely not a silly subject here folks ... (Sleep Apnea can cause a heart attack)
This is worth reading if this is happening to you.

If you need a sleep study, you may be waiting a long time for an appointment, or you may be hesitant to go to a sleep lab to get tested.

Depending on your situation, you may be able to do what a handful of people in this area have tried – an at-home device for some basic screening.

Shawn Abrams worried he had sleep apnea.

“Every now and then I’d wake up a little tired, and did snore every now and then, especially if I got on my back and my wife would complain a little bit,” he said.

He wanted to get tested, but not in the usual way — in a lab, in a strange bed, with wires and cameras.

“I was talking to some other people I knew that had done that, they said it’s very uncomfortable, No. 1,” he continues. “They say it’s very expensive depending on insurances.”

Some people just can’t sleep like that, or the sleep they get isn’t quite like at home. So he was relieved his doctor offered an alternative – an at-home test.

“You turn it on and it talks to you, which is really cool, it gives you a brief tutorial of how to quickly set it up to make sure you’re good to go,” he says.


It’s worn on the forehead. It stores three nights of information about oxygen levels in the blood, pulse rate, airflow, breathing and snoring.

“There are alarms built in, in the event it comes off, so the patient can put it back again,” Dr. Raj Kapoor, a sleep specialist at UPMC Passavant, said.

It’s FDA approved as a screening tool for obstructive sleep apnea only.

“We like to use it for obese patients. We like to use it for patients who do not wish to go to the lab for different reasons,” Dr. Kapoor said. “It’s basically a screening procedure.”

Shawn turned the device back in to the doctor, so the information could be analyzed. He got an answer in 48 hours.

“I had what they call a very, very mild case, where I did have some snoring and a little disruption, but nothing to the effect where I have to go to another sleep lab, or wear any other devices while I sleep,” he said.

It’s not meant to diagnose other reasons for sleep disturbances, like narcolepsy or other conditions where there are abnormal movements during sleep. It’s not for people with other health conditions, like heart failure or stroke. They would need a regular sleep lab study.

Dr. Kapoor says the at-home test is about a third the cost of a regular sleep lab study and that most insurances will cover up to $200.

[Ian Gills]

I've had a sleep test and, trust me, if you're not man enough to do one of those and need a "home kit" instead (only in America, eh?) then it's a miracle that you have managed to survive as long as you have, facing such traumas as crossing the road or going to the mall.

You go to a clinic after work, get wired up and have a kip.

One of the nicest medical procedures you can have. Except you can't drink any beer before you go to bed.

I was found not to have sleep apnea. But I do snore. And my heart rate is low (possible symptoms).

The only problem with a sleep test is that the lab tend to wake you up around 4am. After which you have to crawl home. It felt like being 17 all over again.

[Redwood]

I have severe sleep apnea and wear a CPAP when I go to bed.
When I first was fitted I felt like I had taken some kind of wide awake drug.

When I took the test they stopped it pretty quick and came in with a mask they wanted me to try instead of coming back another time.
I was probably keeping the other patients awake with my snoring...

[Cookie]

My husband snored rather badly, and I learned that it stresses the heart. I wish we would had known that prior.