When it comes to going to the hospital for checkups, people have a certain understanding of having blood drawn to measure blood lipids, liver function, etc., having an endoscopy to look at the stomach and intestines, looking at the nose and ears, and taking a film to look at the internal organs. But when we go to the hospital to see a sleep disorder, the doctor will recommend that we first complete a sleep monitoring, and then many patients wonder, in the end, what is sleep monitoring? What is a sleep monitor? Can the doctor tell how sick I am? What is sleep monitoring? The standard overnight polysomnography is when the patient sleeps in a special sleep monitoring room in the hospital for one night and the doctor collects information about his breathing, oxygen levels in the blood, sleep depth, etc., through various wires attached to his body before he sleeps (these wires are similar to an EKG, except there are more of them and more parts), and then analyzes this information to come up with the results of what is wrong with his sleep and how serious these problems are. severity, etc. What are the results of sleep monitoring? Sleep monitoring overnight can collect a lot of raw information from the patient, and then through the doctor’s analysis, more indicators can be further derived. 1. Sleep depth: By monitoring and recording the brain’s EEG activity and eye movements, the doctor can analyze and determine how well the patient slept on the night of monitoring, that is, whether he slept well or not. For snoring patients, the better the sleep, the heavier the snoring condition may be that night, and the examination done can better reflect the snoring condition; on the contrary, the examination that night may not reflect the real snoring condition well. For patients with insomnia, the analysis of sleep depth is a good reflection of the patient’s real sleep condition, rather than just relying on the patient’s description. 2.Breathing condition: By monitoring the airflow and temperature changes of the mouth and nose, the degree of movement of the thorax and abdomen, the doctor can monitor whether the patient has apnea during sleep and whether the apnea is caused by airway obstruction or by central problems. 3.Muscle activity status: It helps the doctor to determine the depth of sleep and to assess the presence of diseases such as restless leg syndrome. 4.Electrocardiogram: It can detect cardiac abnormalities that occur during sleep. 5.Oxygen saturation: collects the change of oxygen content within the blood overnight and is able to determine the severity of snoring. In addition, sleep monitoring is very powerful as it monitors body position and intraesophageal pressure, and is an essential test for diagnosing diseases related to sleep. Do I need sleep monitoring? The need for sleep monitoring is not up to you or me, but is determined by the patient’s condition, the doctor’s recommendation and his or her own wishes. If you have symptoms such as sleep snoring, breath-holding, insomnia, sleepwalking, daytime drowsiness, morning dizziness and headache, please consult your doctor about the need for sleep monitoring. How is sleep monitoring done? Overnight polysomnography requires you to sleep in the hospital for one night. Before the test, you should first make an appointment with the sleep technologist, inform him/her of your sleep habits, and confirm the precautions to be taken before the test. On the day of the test, please keep your usual routine (keep napping/not napping, don’t be overly tired, don’t be too hungry or too full, etc.) and don’t take stimulant or sedative foods or medications (coffee, strong tea, cola, tobacco, alcohol, etc., consult your doctor if you want to stop taking medications for a long time). Take a bath at home or in the ward (no slippers, toothpaste, shower gel or other toiletries are available in the ward) half an hour before the scheduled time. Do not apply hair or skin care products after bathing, and men should shave. Then change into your own loose pajamas and wait in the ward at the appointed time. For those who are assessed by the doctor to be in serious condition, older than 60 years old or younger than 18 years old, a family member is also required to accompany the examination. The sleep technologist will connect several leads to your body for monitoring before allowing you to sleep normally. You may feel slight discomfort during the test due to the leads, and some people may have trouble sleeping, but the test is painless and non-invasive. The preliminary report will be available in the morning after the examination, and you can come to the hospital to pick up the official report during the working hours of the next day after the examination (due to the complexity of different patients’ conditions, the analysis time of the report varies, so please consult the sleep technologist for the specific time to pick up the report). Sleep monitoring is a very important indicator. For patients with severe snoring, we recommend to do the sleep monitoring first before taking it to the doctor for the next step of treatment according to the severity. (Sleep monitoring should be done at night and the length of monitoring is usually 7 – 8 hours).