If you sit down to watch television or read the paper, do you often pass out as soon as you're comfortable? Plenty of people doze after a hard day, but if this is a regular occurrence, it could be a sign of a sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea.

The National Institutes reports that it generally takes people around 10 to 15 minutes to fall asleep. Passing out after five minutes could be a sign of chronic sleep deprivation. If you suspect that you have a sleeping disorder, consult your physician about being diagnosed so treatment can begin.

Testing for Sleep Disorders

In order to find a diagnosis, your physician might conduct a sleep study called polysomnography, done at an overnight sleep lab. Everything that happens to you while sleeping is monitored and recorded.

During sleep, your eye movement, brain activity, heart rate, muscle tension, pattern of breath, and blood oxygenation are observed and recorded by special lab devices. This study could also entail an MLST, or Multiple Sleep Latency Test. This test gives you multiple chances to doze off during the day, times when you'd regularly be up. The MSLT gauges how tired you are during the day by measuring the time it takes for you to fall asleep at different times. It can also aide doctors in eliminating other sleeping disorders from the diagnosis that aren't sleep apnea.

Is a Sleep Study Necessary for Diagnosis?

Your doctor will study your symptoms closely to determine whether you need a sleep study or not for diagnosis. To ensure your physician makes the best decision, keep a journal of all your symptoms and sleep habits. Judging from you physical exam, medical history, and symptom journal, your healthcare provider will determine if a sleep study is necessary.

The journal you keep with details about your symptoms lets your doctor know more about your sleeping patterns. Sleep disorders, such as nocturnal asthma and sleep apnea, disrupt your regular sleeping patterns, causing your behavior during the day could show severe tiredness. Having been cheated out of a good night's sleep, you may feel sleepy, irritable, have weak hand-eye coordination, and have problems with memory. If operating without enough sleep is normal for you, you might not recognize these symptoms as problematic. Record these symptoms, and you and your healthcare provider will better know how you sleep.

The National Sleep Foundation has stated that a higher chance of heart attack, angina, and stroke are associated with sleep apnea, so diagnosing your sleep disorders with a sleep study can be very beneficial if you suffer from severe heart issues.