Sleep

For those of you wondering what a Sleep Tech does....well in essence we watch people sleep. Well, we do more than that. Patients are hooked up to a ton wires including the head, face, legs, and chest. Your brain waves, eye movements, chin movements, leg movements, snoring, heart and breathing are all monitored. Doctors have several things they look for for in a sleep study....sleep apnea, RLS, PLM, narcolepsy and other disorders related to sleep. Most patients have similar symptoms including: Excessive daytime sleepiness, tired during the day, snoring, waking up gasping for breath and witnessed apneas by family members. There are many other symptoms and everyone is different. These are just a few common ones. Most people have heard of sleep apnea. It is a very common disorder. This is generally what patients are suspected of having and are sent for a sleep study by their doctor. Sleep apnea can put a tremendous strain on the heart and can cause high BP and other similar conditions to worsen. There are several people I have come in contact with that talk about their life after CPAP. CPAP is the machine you use if you have apnea. CPAP is not the only machine used for apnea, but it is the most common. There is a mask that attaches to the machine that blows air down your throat to open your airway. A lot of people get confused, it is not oxygen, it is air. There are pt that need O2 and it is bled through a port in the mask. Other machines include BiPap and ASV. Different kinds of Apnea and different levels of how bad the apnea is depends on machine you need. Back to people who use CPAP on a daily basis. They love their machine! There are a lot of people that say they, "I have not felt like this in years, I have so much energy." One does have to get use to it and some people do not tolerate it well. It is an adjustment to sleep with a mask each night but it is well worth it if it improves your everyday life.