Nixona

I'm just speaking from personal experience here, but this is how mine went:

My family doctor referred me over to a pulmonary specialist (we have one of the leading guys in the country), I got in to see him and he scheduled the sleep test for a Thursday night.

I got there around 8 or 9PM, they gave me a few minutes to relax, change into sleepwear and get comfortable. The room was a nice effort at making a hospital room feel like a bedroom, and there was a television, which I almost always have on in the background when falling asleep at home. A nurse came in after a bit, and explained exactly what would happen. They then used some kind of temporary glue to glue electrodes to my head, I think forehead, neck, arms, legs, etc. The wires are a little annoying and I found I couldn't REALLY toss and turn the way I usually do just before I fall asleep. I was videotaped and monitored throughout the night. It took me about 90 minutes to get to sleep, a little longer than usual but I think they expect this. They woke me up around 4 or 5AM, I guess they only need so much time of recording data, probably 6 hours. They unstuck all the electrodes and cleaned me up as best as possible. I got up, drove home, showered and had some breakfast. I'm not sure if they still glue on the electrodes...if so the only thing you have to deal with is the glue in your hair. No matter how much you scrubs, rinse, shower or whatever, you'll be picking glue out of your hair for a day or two. It's a little odd, but I was more than willing to go through some annoyance to get a diagnosis and treatment.

The doctor's office called me within a week, scheduled a followup appointment to go over the results, and the rest is history.

As a sidenote- I think it's best to try to have a typical day up until the sleep test, just don't drink caffeine or nap, but go about your regular routine. Hopefully you've given up caffeine trying to find the source of the problem already anyway, so it shouldn't be too much to ask. It was great for me doing it on a Thursday night, although I did have to play in a varsity football game the following evening, I had the entire weekend to relax and catch up on my sleep once I made it through Friday.

Hope that helps a little!