Home Sleep tests are useful for patients who have suspected moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea and are otherwise healthy. The purpose is to diagnose sleep apnea. It shows estimates of sleep time and sleep stages, obstructive breathing episodes, heart rate, and oxygen loses. It is not capable of diagnosing complicated or mild cases of sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, or any other sleep disorders besides sleep apnea. This is valuable, accurate, focused information in the right patients, usually young, healthy adults.
Barker Sleep offers our patients the most sophisticated and reliable of all home testing devices, the WatchPat, recognized specifically by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. WatchPat technology is based on the sensitive, small changes in blood vessels in the finger which occur with apneas and oxygen fluctuations. From our clinic, patients take the WatchPat home after instructions on use, perform their test overnight, and return the device the next morning for our analysis and reporting. Doing your own test involves attaching limited sensors on the chest, the snug fitting finger probe, and the device on the wrist during the night.
Practice guidelines from the Academy have approved its use for moderate to severe sleep apnea. It is not approved to use for children, elderly, seriously impaired or ill patients, smokers, and patients with multiple sleep complaints or disorders.
