Where is a sleep study performed?

Most sleep studies are performed overnight and may be suitable to undertake in hospital or in your own home, depending on your circumstances. Our team offers sleep studies through the Epworth Hospital and also facilitates sleep studies through local public hospitals. We will discuss which option best suits your preferences.

What information can you learn from a sleep study?

During a sleep study, we collect a range of information about your sleep by measuring your brain wave patterns, breathing patterns, oxygen level, heart rate and muscle movement. We learn about the amount of sleep you are obtaining (including deep sleep and dreaming sleep) and whether it follows the pattern which we would usually see in people who have high quality, refreshing sleep. Many sleep disorders, including disturbances to breathing such as obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), can be detected on a sleep study. The next step in management and finding relief from your symptoms is often guided by the results of your sleep study.

Specialised types of sleep studies

The standard sleep we perform is called polysomnography (PSG). Other specialised sleep studies we perform include a CPAP implementation or review study, where a continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) machine is worn during the sleep study to treat conditions such as obstructive sleep apnoea, to optimise the efficacy and comfort of the CPAP machine. Daytime sleep studies include a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), which investigates other rare causes of excessive sleepiness that may not be revealed on an overnight study. A maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT) is another daytime sleep study that allows us to demonstrate alertness and to assess the response to treatment of a sleep condition.