Polysomnography

The gold standard sleep study

What is polysomnography (PSG)?

PSG is a sleep study based off of physiological

parameters

Can be used to measure sleep and diagnose

certain sleeping disorders
Different types can be done at home or in a sleep
lab
Usually at least three nights in sleep lab as first
one night or two are not used so the patient can
adjust
There are two sets of rules developed for
interpreting the results

In 1968 Rechtschaffen and Kales set

the standard
The American Association of Sleep
Medicine revised them in 2007

What does a PSG measure?

A full PSG measures 9 different signals

EEG (electroencephalogram) Brain activity

EOG (electrooculogram) Eye movements
SpO2 Oxygen Saturation, basically the amount of
oxygen you have
Respiratory effort
Respiratory airflows
Position
Snoring
ECG (electrocardiogram)- Heart beat
EMG (electromyogram) body
movements ( leg and chin specifically)

What it can look like to get a

PSG.

Do we need all those wires?

The absolute minimum of electrodes for a full

PSG set up is about 12.

Three EEG
Two EOG
Two EMG
One airflow
One for ECG
One for Oxygen saturation
Two respiratory effort belts

Why do we want to know this?

We can get several things from this data:

Sleep onset latency how long it takes to fall

asleep
Sleep Efficiency- hours asleep divided by time in
bed
Sleep stages
how long was
spent in each
stage of sleep
Breathing
irregularities if
you have sleep
apnea.

How can we get this data?

Here are our options:

We should get this:

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polysomnography

Berry, Richard et al. (2012).A The AASM Manual for the scoring of Sleep
and Associated Events: Rules Terminology and Technical Specifications,
Version 2.0. Darien, IL: American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Rechtschaffen, A. & Kales, A. (Eds.) (1968).A manual of standardized

terminology, techniques, and scoring system for sleep stages of human
subjects. Washington D.C.: Public Health Service, U.S. Government Printing
Service