SLEEP STUDIES

YOUR SLEEP IS OUR ART

THE STUDY TECHNIQUES

We regularly resort to proven techniques and tools besides polysomnography:

THE SLEEP DIARY

which is a sheet of paper onto which we ask the patient to note his patterns such as bed time, awakening estimations, time of getting-up over a prolonged period – usually of fifteen days – to establish his week and weekend patterns over a long period.

ACTIGRAPHY

is a sort of wrist-watch that measures the alternance between the patient’s rest and activity patterns, also over long periods of time of between a few weeks to a few months. This device will enable the specialist to identify strategic errors in the patient’s lifestyle or working hours.

RESPIRATORY POLYGRAPHY

is a physiological measure device focused on breathing and the heart. We will not obtain any information on the patient’s neurological activity or on his behaviours. This tool however has a use in sleep apnea detection.

OTHER POSSIBILITIES…

It might be useful to measure the day vigilance in parallel with a sleep study.

Over the last ten years we have developed day tests to measure the extent to which the patient is drowsy or vigilant. We may for example study the speed at which the patient falls asleep during they day, at which he gets into the dream phase (for diseases such as narcolepsy).

These tools may also be used for testing the capacity to stay awake, where we for example prevent the patient from falling asleep and observe his alertness level. This may be very useful for drivers for example, who must stay awake during long trips. The automotive industry used this idea and offers more and more devices aimed at detecting a driver’s lack of alertness and invite him to stop on the side of the road to take a short nap.