Sleep studies are used to help evaluate sleep disorders, and may be especially important when a sleep disorder is the result of a breathing problem. The test is performed in a sleep disorder clinic, which a person will be admitted to for a nighttime sleep session. During sleep, the patient is monitored by an electrocardiogram (ECG), or heart monitor, and by electroencephalogram (EEG), or brain monitor. These recordings are used in combination with information obtained from monitoring breathing to help establish the type and severity of any problem.

Sleep apnea is one of the problems that a sleep study is important in helping to diagnose. It is characterized by repeated episodes of breathing stoppage during sleep and is caused by an impairment or disturbance to the movement of air in the upper respiratory passages. After 20 to 30 seconds or more without air, your sleep lightens, breathing returns to normal, and the cycle begins again.

The signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include:

• excessive daytime sleepiness

• extremely loud snoring, broken by episodes of breath stoppage

• morning headache.

Click here for information on The Sleep Clinic, including a self-scoring survey you can take that may help you identify symptoms of a sleep disorder.