Sleep apnea occurs when your breathing stops and starts again intermittently while you are sleeping. These abrupt pauses in breathing, known as apneas, can worsen your sleep, lower the oxygen levels in your blood, and gradually advance to other medical complications. Depending on what is disrupting the breathing, sleep apnea can be Obstructive or Central.
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) happens when something partly blocks your throat’s airway, making it hard for air to flow through. Central sleep apnea (CSA) occurs when the brain doesn’t send the right signals to the muscles that help you breathe. OSA is a lot more common than CSA. If you are male, older, overweight, a regular smoker, or have family members with obstructive sleep apnea, you are at an increased risk as well.
The only way to accurately diagnose sleep apnea is by undergoing testing under the guidance of a primary care physician, a dentist, or a sleep expert.
Tests for sleep apnea are required to confirm if someone has a sleeping issue where they stop breathing, like obstructive sleep apnea or central sleep apnea. Since OSA is much more common and can seriously impact health, it is the main focus of these tests.
To find out if you have sleep apnea, a healthcare provider checks how you breathe while you sleep. Known as a “sleep study,” these tests can spot when breathing stops and check how bad and often these stops happen. They can also see if there are other problems at play.
Tests are also key in getting the right treatment. Many people with OSA use a machine that keeps their airway open with a flow of air (called a CPAP machine). Testing helps determine the right air pressure for these machines, ensuring they work as well as possible.
Another reason for these tests is to monitor changes in sleep breathing over time. By doing the tests again later, doctors can see if treatment is working or if changes like weight loss have helped improve sleep apnea.
If you are showing signs that could mean you are breathing abnormally during sleep, you might need to undergo a sleep study. The main signs to watch include feeling extremely sleepy during the day, snoring loudly, and sometimes waking up choking or gasping.
Your doctor may also suggest testing if you have other risk factors for OSA, like being overweight, having high blood pressure, or feeling constantly tired throughout the day. If this is the case, conducting an at-home sleep test is the next course of action, as this will definitively prove whether you have sleep apnea apr not.
The more advanced in-lab overnight study is only recommended when you are noticing some serious symptoms, such as:
Continuous, loud snoring (loud enough to be heard through closed doors or to disturb the sleep of others).
Continuous, loud snoring (Despite taking medication, blood pressure remains high. loud enough to be heard through closed doors or to disturb the sleep of others).
Extreme drowsiness during the day results in falling asleep at inappropriate times, such as while driving or at work.
Heart problems, including heart failure, atrial fibrillation, or other cardiovascular diseases (these can be related to or worsened by sleep apnea).
Difficulty concentrating, memory problems, changes in mood, irritability, or decreased cognitive function that affects daily life.
Instances where you actually stop breathing during sleep (observed by someone else).
Frequent, unexplained headaches upon waking up.
To be diagnosed with OSA, you need an AHI of at least 5+ in addition to other symptoms listed above or an AHI over 15, whether or not you show symptoms. Your doctor will discuss the AHI and other important findings after the test. Sometimes, more tests are needed to confirm your initial results or determine the best treatment if you are diagnosed with OSA.
Whether you do the sleep study in your own home or in a sleep laboratory, the key factor necessary to clearly diagnose sleep apnea is the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). It counts how many times you stopped breathing or breathed shallowly each hour. Here is what the numbers mean:
For a home sleep test, you are provided with a kit with easy-to-attach sensors and a wearable device that monitors your vitals throughout the night. You submit the device to your doctor or sleep expert the next day, and they decode the recorded data to confirm a diagnosis.
At-home sleep tests work exceptionally well for people who have mild or moderate sleep apnea; if it’s suspected that you may have a more severe case or other health issues, you will likely be recommended to undergo another sleep study in a lab.
If you are worried you might have sleep apnea, contact the sleep experts at Sleep Better Metrowest today.
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