Every year, many are diagnosed with sleep apnea. Fortunately, you can effectively manage the disorder in various ways. For instance, your healthcare provider can recommend you either online sleep apnea diagnosis or in-lab tests. From there, your healthcare provider will help you create a good treatment plan.

What Sleep Apnea Is

It is a disorder that causes people to stop breathing when they are asleep. This happens either because their brains cannot control their breathing or because of airway blockage.

Lack of oxygen often activates the surviving reflex, which wakes you up to continue breathing. Although this reflex keeps us alive, it also disrupts our sleep cycle.

This, in turn, prevents restful sleep. It may also put too much stress on our hearts, which can be life-threatening or risky if left unaddressed.

Sleep Apnea Types

There are three primary forms of sleep apnea. These forms include the following:

• Complex sleep apnea syndrome is a combination of CSA and OSA. The affected people exhibit the symptoms of those two conditions.
• Central sleep apnea (CSA) occurs when our brains fail to signal to the muscles that control breathing.
• Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs when the muscles around the throat relax excessively as you sleep. This, in turn, causes airway blockage.

Diagnosis Process

Confronting potential medical issues is among the first challenges most patients face when seeking help with their condition. But still, most are overwhelmed by where exactly to begin.

Understanding the referral, assessment, and screening process can help most patients navigate the process. This helps ensure they efficiently manage the condition. Here are the tests involved:

1.Online Sleep Screening

Many patients begin their treatments with an online screening questionnaire. It enables them to review their concerns and symptoms without committing to consultation fees or in-person appointments.

2.Home Sleep Test

Healthcare providers provide patients with a simplified test they can use at home to diagnose the condition. The test measures patients’ breathing, airflow, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels.

3. Polysomnography

In this study, patients are hooked up to equipment that monitors their brain, lung, and heart activity. The equipment also monitors their breathing patterns when they are asleep. Healthcare providers can use it to measure leg/arm movements and the level of blood oxygen.

4. Sleep Diary

Your healthcare provider can ask you to keep a sleep diary for this assessment. It can be for two weeks or so. Your diary shouldn’t just include your sleep patterns. It must also include how many times you wake up throughout the night. These details are crucial as they help pinpoint sleep patterns. This, in turn, can help diagnose the condition or disorder.

In conclusion, diagnosing this disorder requires a more collaborative approach. Remember, the condition is a very complex disorder. Many factors may contribute to this disorder. Therefore, you will need different skill sets and perspectives to be diagnosed effectively. Every specialist you visit must communicate with your healthcare provider or doctor and vice versa.