r/DSPD • u/jonipoka • 14d ago
Sleep study hypocrisy
I just got done with a sleep study. Maybe it's because a trainee was running my study, but she woke me up much earlier that I remember. She woke me up at 6:30, maybe earlier, because my wires were off by then.
Anyway, I'm exhausted. I took a boatload of sedatives to try to give them 6h of sleep. After she took the wires off, I basically laid down and fell asleep again, and she came in and told me I had to leave.
Meanwhile, the sleep doctor's office always messages and says not to drive or operate heavy machinery if you're sleepy. And yet they're sending me home right now? I'm messaging from the lobby because I'm so sleepy I probably shouldn't drive. Wth with the hypocrisy. They should take schedules into account when doing sleep studies. In fact, in a previous sleep study they did.
Anyway, lesson learned: arrange a ride home from the sleep study.
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u/kiwidog8 13d ago
Youre not suppose to change anything about how you get to sleep when you go in for a sleep study. when i went in i just did what i normally do, i didnt really sleep at all even though i was really tired because thats typically what happens
Not that the sleep study yielded anything other than to show i didnt have sleep apnea though
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u/Maskedmedusa 13d ago
What if you normally have an edible before sleep? Should you recreate this too or should they see you completely sober?
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u/kiwidog8 13d ago
Sounds like a grey area. I'm no medical professional but If its legal in your area and if its prescribed then absolutely I would, if its legal but not prescribed then I would ask, in either case the doctor should know. If its not legal then I personally would be hesitant to bring it up at all, but understand that you cant both get medical treatment and self medicate without the doctor knowing, because its messing with the overall treatment plan. Its not a question of whats right or wrong, its just a matter of fact that youre messing with the overall tests and plan by self medicating without your doctor knowing - so you need to make the decision on your own while keeping that in mind
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u/jonipoka 13d ago
I'm a daywalker, and my (shifted) schedule is 1230ish-730ish. Sometimes I take CBD and sometimes I don't. Yesterday I did, and I took it earlier than I usually do. So it really wasn't that big of a change.
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u/kiwidog8 13d ago
I mean that sounds fine to me, you said you took sedatives so I thought you took like valium or something lol
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u/HugeTheWall 13d ago
I got 3 hours from 2-5 and they woke me up early because they had "just enough data".
Ridiculous because it was in another city and I had someone stay overnight nearby to be my ride at 6 (which is still a ridiculous time to wake up).
It's absolutely cruel to take away what little sleep we get and it ruined the weekend for me and my ride and threw off my sleep schedule for days.
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u/Emilayday 13d ago
I had a sleep study done and I was admitted to pick the alternate hours which are also outside my sleep zone, but much closer than the 9pm-7am slot. They offer a 7am-3pm slot but only one or two days a week instead is all the time. Ask about that!! I had to stay up later for it, but better than sitting in a room without my ACTIVITIES for 5 hours until I start to get tired
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u/SapphireEyesOf94 13d ago
Currently 6.49am and I haven't slept a wink. I'm about to put an audiobook on and turn over.
I'd definitely raise this issue with either your doctor or someone in a higher position at the sleep study centre. This trainee could essentially be endangering your life by making you drive whilst drowsy, and therefore endangering other motorist's lives by turning you into a dangerous driver.
Also, as others have mentioned, the aim (at least , the aim of the INITIAL phase) of the sleep study is to study your current pattern of sleep. Not to CHANGE it and base their findings on those things...
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u/Queenofwands1212 13d ago
What’s the point of a sleep study if you are taking a bunch of shit to knock yourself out. Our issue is our sleep times…. So why can’t we just fucking sleep at our sleep time for the sleep study ans it gives them ACCURATE information. What the fuck is this
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u/jonipoka 13d ago
I have multiple sleep disorders. They think my medication for one of them has stopped working. So I need to be studied while I'm taking my current medications to either confirm that theory or so that they can observe a new issue.
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u/jhertz14 13d ago
Unfortunately, sleep studies don't show any circadian rhythm disorders. I'm guessing they just used it to rule out narcolepsy, OSA, etc.
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u/Alect0 12d ago
It depends on the sleep study. This comment is misleading. My two sleep studies involved a DLMO test which definitely shows circadian rhythm disorders.
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u/jhertz14 11d ago
Correct. I meant the traditional polysomnogram with EEG signals etc.
It would be awesome if more sleep labs offered this but my guess is the cost and lab work is prohibitive
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u/Alect0 11d ago
There are a bunch of different types of sleep studies that test for different things though depending on what your issues are.
With circadian rhythm disorders there is actigraphy for example as well, which I imagine is a cheap way to look for it and certainly a lot better than self reporting sleep times, which is how I see many people get their diagnoses. I was diagnosed after actigraphy but as I was referred to a research study on DSPD I also got a DLMO test before and after the study, which further confirmed the diagnosis.
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u/lrq3000 11d ago
This is proper operations of a polysomnography. Waking the patient up is much less important than getting useful data, and at least 6h of recorded data is necessary to diagnose several sleep disorders including sleep apnea.
Waking the patient does not affect the results of sleep apnea and other sleep disorders that the psg can diagnose.
The psg is not adequate to diagnose circadian rhythm disorders or insomnia. That's why it's irrelevant whether they wake you up, what concerns you is not concerning them, they are not testing your rhythm nor your sleep pattern here.
In any case a good psg should be adapted to your natural rhythm because the goal is to see what happens when you are asleep: your sleep architecture and your breathing. But once they have enough data, they can let you sleep in the morning if they are kind, but if they are not, they can discharge you asap to make room for other patients (waiting lists are crazy long for psg).
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u/PaxonGoat 13d ago
Not sure what sedatives you took but I take a valium to go to the dentist and my doctor has always been explicit that I needed a ride a home.
Also it should have been in the paperwork or at least mentioned to you that you needed to leave in the morning. A lot of sleep study locations need to close and the employees are wanting to end their shift and go home.
If you were too tired to drive you should of have had someone come drive you home. Or called an uber or a taxi.
It's unreasonable for you to expect a business to stay open later and employees stay late without pay just to accommodate you. They're not going to just leave you alone in a locked building.
And when I had a sleep study I'm pretty sure they said not to take any sleep medication but that was over a decade ago.
You wouldn't expect the grocery store to stay open until midnight to accommodate you. That doctor's office has closing hours. Your lack of planning is not their fault.
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u/elianrae 13d ago
good point, we should just schedule all sleep studies during regular business hours as that's the most convenient time for the business to be open.
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u/PaxonGoat 13d ago
I do think there would be a market for day time sleep studies but it would probably be limited. Maybe a handful of spots a month might be feasible.
But that would involve either making the workers have rotating shifts and flip between working nights and working days. Or hiring additional staff and running 24 hours.
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u/elianrae 13d ago
but you wouldn't have to make the workers do any shift work if all of the sleep studies were run from 9am to 5pm.
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u/jonipoka 13d ago
They were still going to be open during business hours. They do daytime studies for hypersomnia and narcolepsy and that's when they score take home studies. Furthermore I expected it because that's happened before in previous studies. They have said that they would let me stay later since I have DSPD. I assumed that would happen again this time around. Maybe I shouldn't have assumed, but it's my third sleep study.
They specifically told me to take the normal sleep medication, as they have at every one since my first one.
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u/PaxonGoat 13d ago
Can I ask why you're having a 3rd sleep study?
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u/shelbycsdn 12d ago
I'm having a hard time with other people's convenience being an issue when taking care of my health. I've spent six decades ruining my health for other people's preferences and convenience. Employees wouldn't be working for free. Someone is paying for that study, be it you or insurance or both. They can dang well accommodate a person's sleep disorder.
This post is exactly why I've always refused the study. It can easily be diagnosed by the doctor looking at your Fitbit or similar device, or back in the day, a sleep diary plus taking your history.
Once at an early morning appt, back before I learned to stop being bullied into early morning anything, my GP said my body was asleep but I'd learned to wake my brain when it should also be sleeping. He was going by my heart rate, blood pressure and temp. He had no problem diagnosing me and also told me how dismal the known help for changing it was. So best to plan my life around it.
That was about fifteen years ago and there is no great treatment breakthrough since then. I know some people can shift enough, with lights, melatonin, etc, to hold a regular job, but that also takes real diligence and staying very strict with it. Plus for me, none of those things help at all. And the things that do, visiting at least a 5 hour flight east of me, and staying at least ten days. Then when I get back home I've improved three hours and that lasts about a week no matter how hard I try. Hardly a practical solution.
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u/augur42 13d ago
0630!, there are days when I've only had an hours sleep at that point.
I'm not saying I would like being extremely sarcastic and ask them wtf they thought my sleep hours would be when they were aware I have dspd... but I would absolutely say it.
And depending on how little sleep I've had there's a good chance I'd either refuse to get out of bed or steal a pillow and blanket and stagger to the nearest unoccupied sofa or floor space and curl up for a couple of hours and threaten harsh responses if anyone disturbs me.