A good night’s sleep is so important that the National Sleep Foundation has been promoting Sleep Awareness Week around the second week of March.
When left undiagnosed, sleep disorders affect the quality of your life and increase your risk of developing illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, etc.
If your sleep issues, such as trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, have begun to occur regularly and are interfering with your life, it’s high time you need to see a sleep expert for diagnosis and treatment of your unique sleep disorder.
Let’s talk about some common sleep disorders, how a sleep medicine doctor diagnoses them, and where you can go for the treatment of sleep disorders in Weatherford, TX.
Common Sleep Disorders
Having sleep issues occasionally due to stress, a hectic schedule, or some other factor is normal and can be ignored. However, if you are experiencing sleep issues more often, then you might have a sleep disorder.
Millions of people of all ages in America are not getting enough sleep due to sleep disorders, such as:
- Insomnia
- Sleep apnea
- Restless leg syndrome (otherwise known as periodic limb movement disorder)
- Sleepwalking
- Shift work sleep disorder
How Sleep Disorders Are Diagnosed?
A sleep expert determines if you have a sleep disorder by conducting a sleep study, which can be polysomnography and multiple sleep latency test.
While most sleep studies are done in the sleep lab by your sleep expert, it is also possible to do your sleep study at home, for which your sleep expert guides you.
Polysomnography
This is a comprehensive and most commonly performed sleep test with the help of which your sleep expert finds out your unique sleep disorder.
The test is usually performed at night but can be done occasionally during the daytime to accommodate shift workers who work at night and sleep during the day.
During a sleep test performed at a sleep center, you are provided with everything that makes you feel comfortable, stress-free, and at home, ranging from premium bedding to cable TV.
For the study, an experienced technologist explains the procedure to you and addresses any concerns you may have before the procedure. Then, they place small sensors and electrodes on your body parts, like the chest, head, arms, and legs, that allows the technologist to monitor certain aspects that may affect your sleep, such as breathing pattern, brain waves, eye movements, heart rate, limb movement, and body oxygen level to name a few.
Your sleep expert also oversees your sleep study and once it is complete, they discuss your results, give you a diagnosis and discuss the treatment plan personally designed for you.
For an at-home sleep study, you are guided about the use of the equipment and the entire procedure.
Multiple Sleep Latency Test
The Multiple Sleep Latency Test measures how quickly you fall asleep in a quiet room during the day and thereby finds out about excessive daytime sleepiness.
Narcolepsy (inability to control normal sleep and wake cycles) and idiopathic hypersomnia are conditions most commonly diagnosed by this test.
For the test, five naps are scheduled for you throughout the day. Each nap trial should begin 2 hours after the prior nap. This test measures how long it takes for you to fall asleep once the lights go off.
If you don’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, the trial will end; but if you fall asleep, you will be awakened after 15 minutes. During the test, sensors are used to measure whether you are asleep and what is your sleep stage.
Once the test is complete, your sleep expert will discuss the results with you and customize a treatment plan for your sleep disorder.
Sleep Experts in Weatherford, TX
If you think you have symptoms of sleep disorders, such as daytime drowsiness, always tiredness, and difficulty falling or staying asleep, visit our sleep expert for thorough diagnosis and treatment.
Being a board-certified internal medicine physician and sleep medicine expert, our Dr. Olusegun Oseni at Lung & Sleep Specialists of North Texas will carry out a thorough assessment of your sleep, which include doing a sleep study and other tests, to learn more about your sleep problem and customize an effective solution for you.
Schedule an appointment with our sleep expert by contacting our staff at 817-594-9993 or click here to request an appointment today.
