What Happens During an In-Home Sleep Study?

A sleep study is an effective way to identify issues that disrupt the quality or quantity of your sleep. Because a good night’s sleep is essential for optimal health, you may need to undergo sleep testing if you experience daytime sleepiness or loud snoring.

At Stat Care Pulmonary and Sleep, our sleep experts Ashok Tyagi, DO, CPE, and Himanshu Chandarana, MD, offer two kinds of sleep testing — in-lab sleep studies and in-home sleep testing.

If you’re planning an in-home sleep study, knowing what to expect can lessen any anxieties you may have, so you can rest easy.

Why you might need a sleep study

Sleep studies are a diagnostic tool to identify breathing issues and other problems you experience while sleeping. Not getting enough sleep can increase your risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and other chronic health conditions.

In-home sleep studies might be a part of your diagnostic testing for:

• Insomnia
• Sleep apnea
• Loud snoring
• Excessive sleepiness
• Difficulties staying asleep

In-home sleep studies are noninvasive and provide our physicians with information about your health, so they can ensure you get the right treatment.

What to expect during your in-home sleep study

Unlike in-lab sleep studies here at our office, you can complete your in-home sleep study in the comfort of your own bed. Ahead of your test, our staff provides you with a portable device that measures your vital signs while you sleep.

Before you go to sleep, you connect several sensors to your body. The sensors collect information about your heart rate and breathing throughout the night. You also attach a probe to your finger that measures your blood oxygen levels.

Additionally, you wear an oxygen mask over your face that secures around your ears. The mask has small tubes that fit into your nostrils to monitor your breathing patterns.

After your sleep study

You remove the sensors when you wake up in the morning and return the device to our office. After our physicians review your results, they contact you to discuss your options for any treatments you might need.

Many people only need to record their activity during sleep for one night to get the diagnostic results they need. Because you’re sleeping in your own room and bed, in-home sleep studies can provide accurate results about how you typically sleep.

However, if your in-home sleep study doesn’t provide enough information, we might recommend that you come back for an in-lab sleep study. That would allow our team to assess additional sleep activities, such as leg and eye movements, while you sleep.

If your study results in a diagnosis of sleep apnea or other sleep disorder, our Stat Care Pulmonary and Sleep providers customize a care plan to your needs. 

We use several strategies, including lifestyle changes, improved sleep hygiene, and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, to improve your sleep quality and health.

Call Stat Care Pulmonary and Sleep in St. Petersburg, Florida, to learn more about the diagnostic benefits of an in-home sleep study, or book an appointment online today.