Didn't sleep during Sleep Study

[tedburnsIII]

I don't know if where you had the study done required so many hours of medically recognizable sleep in order to render a valid study, but that is more probable than not.

It is quite common for one to think they only slept for two hours when they indeed slept more.

Your facts are sketchy- you should get a copy of the entire diagnostic report and post it here.

I was fortunate enough to have a split-night study performed. I double-dosed sedatives over the usual amount when occasionally taken.
So, I slept through the night pretty well...on 2.5mg diazepam and 10mg Zolpidem- no regrets about doing so.

[DariaVader]

indeed you cannot get an accurate test result if you did not sleep. I slept very little even doing the home test, but it still showed enough disturbance I was diagnosed with mild to moderate apnea. I regret not taking something to ensure sleep, as I doubt my apnea is mild --- but the important thing is that I am now treating it successfully with cpap. I agree with the advice to repeat either a lab or home test with a sleep aid.

[TyroneShoes]

Do a home test. Try to get off the drugs.

Since AHI is an hourly index, that number is accurate for however many number of hours you slept. But is is less representative of what your condition is, the fewer hours it covers, which is why a 5-6 hour sleep test in a lab is not really an accurate sample in the first place.

Get the full report on your PSG. Find out how long the events were. A 3.1 AHI with 11-second events is much different from a 3.1 AHI with 51-second events. AHI is a summary indicator, meaning it boils down the high points of what is going down (events per hour on average) into a simple number, but at the expense of really understanding the underlying issues all that clearly. What was your total time in apnea? How desaturated did your 02 get? All of these are important. The PSG has this data.

But it seems like the docs are on the right path. They will be on an even better path if you do a home test.

I slept about 3 hours in my PSG. Lab sleep tests can yield lots of info, but they are also fundamentally flawed for a number of reasons.

If the home test is also inconclusive (which is what I think a 2-hour PSG with a reported 3.1 AHI might be), see if you can talk them into letting you take an APAP machine home for a couple of weeks to get more data about your sleep. Ironically, while not nearly as sophisticated as a PSG for getting data, it gets tons more data, and from you in your natural sleep enviroment, so it may be as valuable, if not more valuable. The PSG is a few data points. The home test is a few data points. xPAP can yield countless data points. Use all three tools to get the best picture, if you can swing it.

The 95% is a good number, and reflects a low AHI, typically. But there is obviously much more going on here than simple OSA, and xPAP will likely only be part of the answer. The arousals are a little worrisome. A modern xPAP can also track those, although it may not be able to really treat them.