Doctors Answers (2)
A sleep monitoring study at home can detect many aspects affecting sleep including snoring, apneas, oxygen desaturation, heart rate, respirations and limb movements that cause arousals from sleep.
Sleep monitoring is a relatively new tool to help a person measure the quality of their sleep at home. Various devices and even some smart phone applications are available that can monitor how long it takes to fall asleep, measure total sleep time and detect which stages of sleep were achieved. These devices can provide feedback and insight about quality of sleep. This information may then be used to correct problems that interrupt sleep.
How Sleep Monitoring Works
During a simple test called a sleep study, or a polysomnography, a professional sleep doctor and a team of sleep experts will be able to monitor sleep patterns in patients. Afterward, the doctor will be able to diagnose a sleep disorder or, in the case of certain neurological sleep conditions such as narcolepsy, may order further sleep testing.
Sleep studies require patients to stay in a bedroom in a sleep center designed for sleep study patients. The patient will be able to go about his or her normal nightly routine, more or less, inside this room. When the patient falls asleep, cameras installed in the room and equipment and small sensors attached to the patient's body will record parameters such as muscle movement, brain activity, heart rate and air flow during breathing. The results of the polysomnography - called a polysomnogram - will reveal whether the sleep study patient has a sleep disorder or need further testing. Sleep disorders that are very commonly diagnosed after an overnight sleep study include insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea.
Why is Sleep Monitoring Important?
Most people don't get as much sleep as they think they do. During the course of one night, sleepers will typically be moved from deep REM sleep cycles multiple times. Although they may not remember when they wake up, their quality of sleep may not have been optimal. Sleep monitoring is important because knowing what your actual sleep patterns are will allow you to improve them. If it turns out that you're having trouble breathing at night, for example, you'll be able to move forward with the necessary treatment to fix that problem. But you can't know that there's a problem until you monitor yourself going to sleep - or until you get a professional to do it for you.
Sleep Monitoring
With the advent of applications and technologies utilized by smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers, there are many sleep monitor devices available to help you monitor sleep from the comfort of your own home. Researchers have developed special headbands and wristbands that track your heart rate and levels of deep sleep. Upon waking, you can actually have a recording of when during the night you were taken out of deep REM but not completely awake. You can track your breathing and other bodily functions using these special sleep monitor devices. The technology used varies depending on what brand or device you decide on, but each technique is a variation of sleep monitoring technology that would otherwise be used during a an overnight sleep study at a certified sleep center.
Devices designed to monitor people going to sleep can greatly help a sleeper gain control of his or her sleep patterns on a personal level. Some products even come with access to companion websites and special sleep management programs to help you sleep better. Regardless, devices that monitor sleep cannot diagnose sleep disorders. To find out if you have a sleep disorder and to move forward with proper sleep disorder treatment or therapy, you'll need to undergo a sleep study or other sleep test with a sleep doctor.
