Sleep apnoea and Home Sleep study

Sleep apnoea occurs when the body completely stops breathing. This can occur in children as well as adults. It may be caused by an obstruction in the airway or less commonly, the brain "forgetting" to breathe. This is seen as either no sound or a gasping/choking noise followed by an inhalation of air. It will be more noticeable if someone has been snoring previously. A hypopnea occurs when breathing is restricted and will sound like snoring followed by an inhalation of air. While a hypopnea and a snore may sound similar, hypopnea results in restriction of oxygen in the blood but a snore does not.

Apnoea and hypopneas can occur hundreds of times in one night and can result in serious medical conditions including:

• Increases rate of heart disease
• Higher blood pressure
• Micro-sleeps
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Depression
• Persistent tiredness

What we can we do for you

At this practice, we are able to provide Medicare funded home sleep studies in collaboration with a Sleep centre based in Melbourne. Once we have determined that a sleep study would be beneficial, we issue you with a machine which you take home. The machine measures several key diagnostic parameters while you sleep. In the morning you return the machine and the data is uploaded to Sleep Specialists in Melbourne. They then return a report to us of your sleep patterns. Using this report we are able to determine whether you have sleep apnoea.

If you are found to have a degree of apnoea or hypopnea we can provide appropriate treatment such as dietary advice (weight loss is beneficial in treating sleep apnoea), throat exercises, referral to an ENT, a mandibular advancement device or a CPAP machine.

"Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Before proceeding, you should seek a second opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner."