I've always been a big snorer, have slightly high BP (at age 29), have symptoms of ADD, and I'm constantly fatigued, so my doctor sent me for a sleep study. I went 2 nights ago. The previous night, I had to work until 3am and was up at 6am, so I was very tired and had no problem falling asleep (the first time) during the study. I had heard/read that the sleep study was painless, but I came to learn that its basically torture! While I was able to fall asleep within 5 minutes (for the first time), I had problems staying asleep with all of the wires on me. Plus, the tech must have woken me up 6 times to adjust the wires. At one point, he said that the ekg wires weren't on right, so he ripped them off (taking with him a lot of chest hair!) and replaced them, telling me to try to go back to sleep. Sure, no problem! At another point, I seriously thought about taking the wires off and leaving. I made it through the night and was absolutely exhausted the next day. My advice -- if you're about to have a sleep study, take the next day off (as I did).

Now the question: The tech refused to give me any info about e.g. apneas, since he wasn't a doctor. I completely respect this and didn't push him. But I was able to discern some facts just from talking with him. In the beginning of the study, you watch a intro video that explains the process, noting "your doctor may have requested that you try CPAP during the night." I asked the tech if this was the case and he says that everyone who has a significant amount of apneas goes on CPAP for at least some portion of the night. I think he defined apnea as 10 seconds w/o breathing and said that more than 20 apneas per hour would mean that you go on CPAP for the rest of the night. Does this make sense, or do I have my figures wrong?

Sure enough, at about 1:00am (after sleeping for about 1.5 hours), he came in and hooked me up to CPAP. I guess this means that I'm having pretty frequent apneas? I know that I have to wait for the final results, but I'm just dying to get some info now.

PS: The CPAP wasn't that bad. I have some sinus problems, and the warm/moist air felt great on my sinuses. I was a little weird getting used to blowing against the pressure (to exhale), but I think I could get used to it if need be...

Sorry for such a long post -- any insight into this would be greatly appreciated~!