Before running to a doctor and resorting to a sleep apnea test, try and find out whether the pattern of your sleep habits match with sleep apnea symptoms or not. It is best to maintain a record on the sleeping patterns which would eventually help the doctors to diagnose your problem

A compiled record of the sufferer’s daily sleep disorder activities may include the following points:

• The total hours of sleep
• How was the usual standard of sleep?
• What were the different types of food you consumed before going to bed?
• What sort of feeling or frame of mind exists while going in bed?
• Do you take any sort of medicines before you sleep?

The details recorded from these observations might prove very useful in revealing the actual cause of disturbance of your sleep and the doctor can even determine if there has been any significant change in the past few days resulting in sleep disorder. After consulting the doctor, you should try and get rid of the habits to see if your sleep gets better or worse. If it doesn’t get better, then you should visit some sleep specialist for help.

How to test for sleep apnea

• Nocturnal Polysomnography – During this test, you would be placed under equipments which would examine your heart rate, oxygen level in your blood, breathing patterns, brain and lung function, arm and leg movements at the time of your sleep.
• Oximetry – This process of test involves small sophisticated instruments which observe and record the oxygen level in your blood when you are asleep. In case if you are suffering from sleep disorder, the oxygen level will drop significantly and would increase when you are awake.
• Portable cardio respiratory testing – In case of certain situations, the doctor may suggest you to conduct basic tests at home to analyze sleep apnea. It includes capacity of airflow, pattern of breathing and oximetry test.

If the sleep apnea study reveals blockage, the doctor may forward you to an ENT specialist to examine your ear, nose and throat. To look for the root cause of sleep apnea, you need to go to a cardiologist who specializes in nervous system.

Diagnosing sleep apnea

If you think, you have sleep disorder then you can verify it through a sleep apnea test at home. Here are a few easy steps for doing it:

• Keep a sleep diary – Ask your partner who sleeps with you to record the time and pattern of your snoring
• Record yourself sleeping – The details of your recording might prove to be useful to the doctors in case of diagnosis. Softwares like audio recorder may be installed in your computer so as to record any sound produced during the sleep. If the analysis indicates a case of sleep apnea, the doctor may possibly send you to a sleep clinic for thorough sleep apnea test.

Treatments of sleep apnea

• Sleep apnea patients can lose weight to check sleep apnea and also to improve the quality of sleep.
• Stop taking tobacco, alcohol and any kind of sedatives that influence and affect the throat muscles which evoke snoring.
• Sleep apnea patients should sleep sidewise. They can use side pillows to make the sleep more comfortable.
• Raise the top of your bed by 4 to 6 inches. This process can reduce snoring and help you to breathe easily.
• You should maintain your sleep hours.
• If a sleep apnea test confirms that you have mild sleep apnea then you can try using a dilator, saline nasal spray or nasal strips to open the nasal passage to stop snoring problems.