Sleep Studies(Polysomography-PSG):   Sleep studies are done on patients with possible sleep disorders.  Some examples of symptoms include, excessive daytime sleepiness, insomnia, snoring, restless legs and respiratory disturbances.   The patient is brought in at night, usually between 8-0 pm. They are placed in a room similar to a motel room, a TV with VCR, a refrigerator, comfortable chairs, and a bed. The Technologist applies wires to monitor brainwave activity, respiratory, thoracic, and abdominal flow, snoring, movements of the legs,  chin muscle activity, EKG, saturation/O2 levels, pulse, body position, eye movements, and video record to identify any abnormalities.  

Multiple Sleep Latency Testing(MSLT):  This is done on patients with suspected Narcolepsy.   If a patient has excessive daytime sleepiness, or falls asleep frequently during the day, he may have narcolepsy.

A routine sleep study is done first, to make sure the patient does sleep during the night.  Then the patient is monitored the following day to measure the physiological sleep tendencies in the absence of alerting factors. It consists of 5 or 6 scheduled naps during which the patient is monitored.   If during any of these scheduled naps the patient has rapid eye movement onset (REM), which is deep sleep, he is most probably a narcolepsy patient.  

Sleep Study Utilizing CPAP/BiPAP:  If a patient is diagnosed with sleep apnea(a period of time during sleep where a patient stops breathing), they are scheduled for another sleep study utilizing CPAP(continuous positive airway pressure) or BiPAP(bilevel positive airway pressure).  The patient wears a mask with a very small amount of continuous air flow.  When the patient falls asleep and starts to have the apnea events, the flow of air is increased until no further apnea occurs.  If a patient cannot tolerate CPAP, BiPAP may be utilized.  BiPAP has a strong flow with inhalation and and a weaker flow with exhalion.  There are different types of  masks, and head gear, depending on the individual will be what the patient prefers.

If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, please email pkesselman@eneuro.med.pro or call (954) 771 8300.