You slept for how long?

Sleep

12 May 2015

People undergoing home polysomnography tests for suspected OSA are not that good at estimating their sleep time, a study from Victoria shows.

But the findings do not appear to have a significant affect on diagnosis, reported the authors from Austin Hospital, Heidelberg, Victoria in the Internal Medicine Journal. 

Types 3 and four polysomnography (PSG) tests are based on a patients estimation of total sleep time. However inaccurate estimation could translate into over-estimation or under-estimation of AHI, the researchers noted.

In their study of 536 consecutive patients attending their sleep clinic the researchers compared the self-estimated sleep times with patients who underwent type 2 home PSG where sleep duration was recorded.

They found that patients generally overestimated their sleep latency and underestimated their sleep offset time. Together, this led to an underestimation of total sleep time.

The 20 minute difference between measured and estimated TST only resulted in 5% difference of TST, they said.

This meant only 2% of patients had a change in their diagnosis of OSA based on calculated AHI using their inaccurate estimated sleep time.

Subjective estimation of sleep perception should be interpreted with caution, the authors concluded.

 

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