Why Do I Need To Retest Sleep Apnea? Discover The Benefits

November 14, 2024

Getting diagnosed and treated for either obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, or complex sleep apnea can be a long process. From talking to your healthcare professional (HCP) to going through sleep tests, getting a diagnosis and finding the right CPAP machine — the list can feel endless. Finally, achieving that diagnosis and obtaining the right treatment can greatly improve your day-to-day by ensuring you enjoy restful nights. But do you need to retest yourself going forward?

After all, you already know you have the condition — what’s the point in sleep apnea testing again now?

The answer is yes — to make sure you’re getting the most effective treatment for you.

Sleep apnea is an ongoing condition that requires long-term therapy. This means that as you progress in life, your needs may change — including your sleep apnea treatment needs. Retesting is a great way to resolve this problem, by allowing your HCP to monitor how effective your current treatment is and make adjustments as necessary.

Reasons You May Need a Sleep Apnea Retest

Circumstances in life lead to a range of changes that can influence how effective your CPAP treatment may be. Whether it’s due to fluctuations in your overall health, setting adjustments on your CPAP device, technological advancements or lifestyle factors, a sleep apnea retest is a great way to ensure you receive the best possible care.

Health and Lifestyle Changes

Changes to your health or lifestyle can affect the severity of your condition or how effective treatment may be. Simple things such as an altered daily routine, weight gain or loss and medications can have various impacts on your obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and, therefore, therapy.

Contributing factors can include:

Weight fluctuations: Either losing or gaining weight, and even your posture can alter the pressure needed for your CPAP therapy to be effective.
Medications: Some medicines can impact muscle tone or breathing patterns and change how your body responds to treatment.
Age: As we grow older, our bodies also undergo various changes that may have similar impacts on CPAP therapy.
Smoking: Quitting or starting to smoke may influence how effective or ineffective your sleep apnea therapy is.

Reduced Treatment Effectiveness

One of the easiest ways to tell if you need to adjust your therapy settings is if you begin to experience the familiar signs and symptoms that led to your diagnosis in the first place. These can be:

Daytime fatigue
Loud snoring
Waking up feeling unrefreshed
Difficulty concentrating

These symptoms can suggest that your current treatment is no longer as effective as it should be. Regular follow-ups with your doctor or sleep therapist can help optimise your CPAP settings and keep your treatment aligned with your current sleep needs. If you experience any of these changes, it is generally recommended that you retest sleep apnea to reassess your condition and treatment needs. You can perform this with either a laboratory or a more convenient sleep apnea home test, such as the Good Sleep Test.

Monitoring and Retesting CPAP Therapy

It’s easy to assume that once you’ve started CPAP therapy, your condition is permanently managed. However, treatment is an ongoing process that requires the monitoring and adjustments of a trained professional. Without the results of a regular sleep apnea test, symptoms can return unnoticed. Left untreated, these can worsen, and data shows that undiagnosed or unmanaged sleep apnea can lead to serious health complications.

Your sleep therapist or doctor can also use the information from retesting sleep apnea to watch for improvements. A simple sleep apnea test at home or in a lab setting can provide unique and useful insight into the specifics of your condition, giving professionals a much richer and informative history to draw from.

How Frequently Should You Retest?

The exact number of times you should retest and the frequency is entirely up to you. Sleep specialists will generally recommend a retest every 2–3 years, although timing can depend on your circumstances.

Regular retesting ensures you can continuously benefit from your CPAP therapy and studies show the necessity of ongoing monitoring. Research highlights that CPAP remains effective over the long term when regular evaluations are conducted, ensuring therapy adapts to any changes in a patient’s health.

However, not everyone has the ability or time to simply book an appointment with the nearest laboratory testing clinic. Whether it’s a matter of accessibility for those in remote areas, finding time between work, family and life commitments, a lack of open appointments or cost factors, lab tests can be difficult to invest in.

If you’re one of those individuals, you’re in luck because at-home sleep apnea tests have been shown to provide similar results to traditional polysomnography tests. This makes them an incredibly convenient and powerful tool for monitoring your sleep apnea.

Advancements in Technology: At-home sleep apnea testing

In recent years, scientists have worked hard to revolutionise the ways we test sleep apnea. At-home sleep tests (HSAT) offer a convenient alternative to traditional lab-based ones. This allows you to monitor your sleep from the comfort of your home or even while you travel. These tests provide reliable data comparable to in-lab results, making them ideal for follow-up appointments and tracking changes in your treatment. The Good Sleep Test has 94% sensitivity, making it a reliable detector of the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI).

Accessibility: HSAT offers an easy, at-home solution for retesting, eliminating the need for lab visits.
User-controlled Environment and Comfort: Patients can complete tests in their own bed, improving comfort and ease.
Periodic Retesting: Offers flexibility to retest as needed, whenever it’s convenient.
Ongoing Information for Your HCP: Provides valuable data for healthcare professionals to make necessary adjustments to CPAP therapy.

NSW CPAP offers professional guidance throughout the HSAT process, ensuring that patients receive the necessary support for accurate and effective retesting. Our knowledgeable team is available to make recommendations on purchasing a CPAP machine and The Good Sleep Test comes with the assessment of a licensed professional who can interpret your results, as well as free lifetime support across the lifetime of your NSW CPAP machine. You can also find additional information on the accuracy of an at-home sleep test vs a lab test.

Benefits of Retesting for Your Healthcare Professional

Having additional information from frequent sleep apnea tests is advantageous for your healthcare professional or sleep therapist in optimising your treatment. With updated information on changes in your sleep patterns and a history to draw from, they can easily fine-tune your settings to meet your current health needs and deliver the best possible outcomes.

Retesting can also help in detecting early signs of potential complications. Regular assessment of your responses to CPAP treatment can show therapists and professionals potential warning signs or assist them in identifying worsening symptoms that you may not yet be aware of. This allows them to make timely interventions to prevent further complications or developments as well.

Take Control of Your Sleep Health with NSW CPAP

To maintain effective sleep apnea treatment, optimising your CPAP device is always recommended. Retesting sleep apnea can ensure that your health is safeguarded and that your healthcare professional or sleep therapist is well-informed of any changes. Modern home sleep tests from NSW CPAP also provide a convenient and affordable way to tailor your therapy to your individual needs.

Regular retesting can often benefit you more than through simple peace of mind by allowing you to promote long-term sleep health through additional support. Contact NSW CPAP today to obtain your own at-home sleep test and ensure every night’s sleep is a good one, always.