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Home Sleep Testing vs In-Lab Sleep Testing

By Somnus Webmaster 14 Dec, 2016 Sleep Medicine home sleep study, home sleep test, HST, In-lab test, polysomnogram, polysomnography

Home sleep studies or Home Sleep Testing (HST) gives a physician an indication of the presence of a sleep disorder in a patient.

Home sleep studies are a suitable to aide in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, however, they are not fullproof in ensuring an accurate diagnosis and therefore not a necessarily a suitable replacement for an in-lad sleep test.

In many cases a patient may still need an in-lab / overnight sleep test, this may be the case when;

1. the results of the HST are not conclusive or data quality may not be sufficient or the sleep physician believes the data is showing a false negative. Since the HST is done at home there may be issues with the equipment or user error issues resulting in a lack of substantial data.
2. the HST is only capable of detecting Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) therefore if a patient has another sleep disorder or a concurrent disorder, such as narcolepsy or restless leg syndrome, the in-lab test is the only way to accurately detect and diagnose this.

In addition, not all patients are candidates for an at home sleep study test, for example patients who suffer from the following conditions are considered high-risk and generally require in-lab sleep testing to ensure appropriate monitoring throughout the evening.

Despite the limitations of an HST many insurances insist on an at home sleep test prior to approval of an in-lab test.

An in-lab test is also called a polysomnography or noctural polysomnogram.