When one of the kids I babysit for was only two or three years old, his parents put him in a sleep study.  He had been suffering from excessive snoring and sleep apnea, and they wanted to find out what they should do about it.

He had to spend the night in the sleep lab, hooked up to all these monitors.  His mom has pictures of it in his scrapbook.  I can only imagine what a difficult night that would be for a kid!  But he made it through okay.

As a result of the information they collected on him, his parents elected to have his tonsils taken out.  Sure enough, his snoring and sleep apnea stopped, which indicates that his tonsils were blocking his airway while he was sleeping, making it hard for him to get a good night’s rest.

If you are having a difficult time sleeping, or frequently wake up feeling like you’ve had little or no rest at all, a sleep study might well be an option for you.  They may diagnose you with insomnia or sleep apnea, and may have treatment suggestions for you, such as a CPAP machine and a sleep apnea mask.

If you have a university hospital in your area, you might want to inquire about the availability of sleep studies, either directly at the hospital or via your regular doctor.  You may not be able to get into a sleep study, but it’s certainly worth a try!

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