Please vote if you have had a sleep study.
In that other very recent thread about sleep studies, I remarked (and other posters seemed to agree) that the sleep study lab just looked like it was shilling to sell CPAP machines.
I wonder if the OP here is really asking: “Is it a given that, if you go in for a sleep study, you will be found to have sleep apnea, and sold a CPAP machine?”
A CPAP machine was recommended–however, the study pretty much just quantified and confirmed what my husband had already observed, so the recommendation was no great surprise.
Answered “a CPAP was not recommended” because I ended up having several sleep studies done and wound up getting a BiPAP*, which is a rather different beast. If the sleep lab was only concerned with processing patients and selling a CPAP, then they I doubt they would have bothered to make the distinction. Granted, I went to a university hospital that doesn’t sell medical equipment itself so the motivations might be different elsewhere.
Honestly, I would expect a vast majority of people going through sleep studies to end up with some sort of PAP equipment simply because 1) people going through the hassle of a sleep study aren’t faking sleep trouble, 2) sleep apnea is far more common than other sleep disturbances, and 3) ventilation is the best treatment we currently have for it. I feel like it’s less a matter of “when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail” and more that they’re actively seeking out nails.
*Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure, for treating central sleep apnea rather than simple obstructive sleep apnea. Central apnea is where you straight up stop even trying to breathe, compared to obstructive apnea which is basically choking on your tongue and soft palate. The BiPAP changes its pressure along with your breathing and has a backup rate for when you stop breathing on your own.
I’m betting that MOST of the time, ordinary people without snoring or apnea problems don’t bother to sign up for sleep studies. Virtually the only people who DO sign up for such studies (including me) are those whose snoring has gotten so bad that their spouses insist they get tested.
So, it’s not surprising that a large percentage of the people who do take the test are told they need the CPAP.
Peaton, I think CPAP is a generic term and BiPAP is a newer version with one company’s fancier control software. My CPAP has the multilevel operation too.
From the Wikipedia article on BiPAP:
Bilevel positive airway pressure (BiPAP) is a proprietary name of Respironics, Inc. for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) with pressure support breaths…
I’m tired so I’m not sure how lucid I’ll be (I’m not really getting any relief from my BiPAP yet), but my point is that the prescription wasn’t a one-size-fits-all approach where I went in, they said “yep you’ve got sleep apnea, we’ll hook you up to a vacuum on reverse that’ll do it,” and slammed the door. That seems to be the idea that the OP was asking about but it’s hard to tell from how terse the OP was.
Going into a little bit of detail, yes, a BiPAP is a PAP system, but I’m under the impression that while BiPAP is only one of a wide variety of machines that actively respond to the user’s breathing, the standard CPAP prescribed for obstructive sleep apnea isn’t capable of that, because it only needs the one pressure level to keep the airway open. That doesn’t help at all with central sleep apnea, so I consider multi-level PAP machines to be a different treatment for a different condition than a standard CPAP for obstructive apnea.
If the OP wanted to know how prevalent mechanical ventilation was compared to say, surgery, then I’d have to change my vote, but as far as I can tell the actual question being asked is “were your particular needs assessed by the sleep clinic or did they give you the default prescription” in which case I’d have to say the former.
Did a sleeping test based on the ‘Yes’ answer I once gave to the question (from a new primary doc) “Any shortness of breath.” I had heart scans, sleep tests, stress tests and the asthema test. All negative but the sleep test was ‘close’ to being positive so they recommeded CPAP anyway, ‘just in case.’
I had a sleep study done about 8 years ago. I was snoring terribly and had already had surgery to correct a deviated septum. The sleep study indicated that I was right on the dividing line between sleep apnea and not. In other words, I was at the very extreme end of “normal”. They did not recommend a CPAP even though I felt I would benefit.
Then, about 3 years later, I had to be tested again for some other medical reasons. Same Ear/Nose/Throat guy ordered the study, same lab folks.
This time, by the numbers, I was well into the sleep apnea group. In fact, I was so far into that group that when I did my follow-up with the doctor, he was very concerned that I had driven myself to the appointment. Apparently, I was capable of falling asleep in under 1 minute, according to the study. He was seriously afraid that if I closed my eyes for more than the length of a blink, I was going to just fall asleep at the wheel.
He was so concerned for my safety, he asked if my wife could come pick me up.
I laughed and told him there was absolutely no way I was falling asleep while I was driving, and that I could prove it. He asked me how I could be positive, and I said, “Because I’m pretty sure the motorcycle wouldn’t go very far if I fell asleep.”
Anyway, to make a short story longer, I was prescribed a CPAP machine after that second study.
For the most part, I love it. Mine has a humidifier on it, and occasionally, there is a lot of water vapor in my exhalations, which then make a tiny film over the exhalation vent holes, which then start an annoying whistling noise.
Like someone said upthread, most people who have sleep studies done are there because their doctor thinks that something is wrong, anyway. I imagine that the sleep study is just the final confirmation, so, therefore, most people are going to come out from the study with a recommendation for a machine.
On my second sleep study, I started out the night without a CPAP, and then partway through, got woken up and finished the night with a CPAP. I think they had already determined that I had severe apnea and were finding the best airflow setting for me.
I have had 3-4 tests, I forget. I’m old, get over it.
3 different places.
None seemed to to recommend or push or even sell anything. They all just did sleep test.
My first Doc gave me a choice of 2 places to go.
Second doc just said he used XXX and they seem fine to him.
I knew I stopped breathing at night a long time ago.
I knew I snored.
When the wife said, " See the doctor or sleep in a different room." That is what decided me.
I felt better the first night. Have uded one every night since then, about 10 -12 years now.
I have to sleep sitting up to sleep well without the CPAP and I have only done that a few times.
I haven’t had my sleep study yet, but I don’t expect to be prescribed a CPAP machine. During the preliminary appointment with the sleep specialist, the doctor told me the most likely diagnosis by a significant margin would be narcolepsy. After doing some additional reading, I think this is quite likely the problem. While apnea will be looked for, the doctor said he had no reason to believe this was the problem other than apnea is much more common than narcolepsy, and that a visual check of my throat indicated some amount of risk. However, because I don’t snore and don’t report anything related to apnea, he didn’t think I was likely to have it. He placed it as a “distant third” option, after narcolepsy, and some kind of rhythmic limb movement disorder (not restless legs), but he advised that he only has that on the list because it can’t be ruled out. Still, more likely than apnea in his view.
During the portion of the appointment where they explained the sleep study to me, the bulk was spent on the extra day portion which is only done if you do not have sleep apnea. This is the portion that diagnoses narcolepsy. CPAP machines were not mentioned, but treatments for narcolepsy were. I could tell by his questions that he started suspecting narcolepsy pretty quickly after I mentioned the sleep paralysis (and he made me describe what that was), though he did ask me if I ever woke up gasping or if others had reported me ever stopping breathing during sleep (no).
The reason I finally made the appointment was after speaking to someone else with narcolepsy and having one of those “Oh, is that… that’s not how other people are?” discussions. This after some bouts of sleep paralysis. So all in all, it makes sense. After doing some research ahead of the appointment, it’s what I thought he might say, though I never mentioned narcolepsy to the doctor until he said it’s what he suspected. The other person with narcolepsy was never recommended to get a CPAP, by the way.
It seems that there aren’t really that many options for sleep disorders, and apnea being overwhelmingly the most common reason (ignoring things that are obviously not apnea, like restless leg syndrome), plus given obesity is an increasing problem and increases your apnea risk, and also given that a sleep clinic that fails to recommend one to a patient could be liable if that patient then dies (sleep apnea is considered life-threatening), is it really that surprising that CPAP machine recommendations aren’t uncommon in sleep clinics? People seem very nervous about doing the sleep clinic at all – they spent a lot of time trying to assuage potential concerns – so I imagine if you get to that point, you probably have a problem, and apnea is likely.
As I said, to me, it’s no more suspicious that a huge perentage of people who get sleep tests are told they need CPAPs than it is that a huge percentage of the people who go to an optometrist are told they need glasses.
It’s a pretty self-selected group! People who see just fine often don’t bother to see an optometrist. People who sleep just fine rarely bother to talk to their doctors about how they’re sleeping, and will rarely or never be asked to take a sleep test.
If you’re getting tested at all, it’s probably because you (or your spouse!) can no longer deny there’s a problem.
I was woken in the middle of my study and fitted with a mask that night. I was labeled as severe due to not breathing 45-50 times per hour. I’ve been through 3 machines and about 7 various mask types. Been 9 years.
I had mild apnea and a CPAP was optional. I had mentioned I was broke going into the sleep study…
There needs to be an “other” option.
I had 3 that did not say CPAP was needed. The 4th (10 years later) said it was.
My husband had a study at about that same time, same clinic, and they said it was not needed. He took the same results to a different clinic and they said that among sleep specialists (our studies were through a neurology practice) they interpret readings differently and DID recommend one for him.
And he does feel better when he uses it.
Interestingly, he’s lost a fair bit of weight - and two studies (one at the clinic, which he bollixed by by setting himself up to sleep poorly, and one at home) said “don’t need it any more”. But he still feels better with the CPAP so he still uses it!
A CPAP machine was recommended, but I knew going in it would be. My cardiologist had me do a home test with a recording pulse oximeter and Holter monitor and found my O2 saturation was going down into the 60% range many times during the night and that these events were triggering episodes of atrial fibrillation. She put me on supplemental oxygen through a nasal cannula until the sleep study could be done and a CPAP machine prescribed.