Sleep Medicine

The Sleep Lab at Kent Hospital has been in existence since 1991. The lab is located on Health Lane behind the main building. Enter into the comfortable waiting area where your technologist will be waiting to escort you to your bedroom for the night.

The bedrooms are comfortably appointed with double or queen beds. You will have your own private bathroom/shower and each room has a flat screen TV for your viewing pleasure. Each room is very private and quiet, opening up onto a corridor similar to a hotel.

Your sleep tech will thoroughly explain the testing procedure (sleep study or polysomnogram) to you and answer any questions or concerns you might have.

The sleep technologist will apply sensors and electrodes to measure these parameters:

• Brain waves (surface electrodes on the head).
• Heart beats (surface electrodes on the chest).
• Eye movements (surface electrodes above and below the eyes).
• Muscle tension (surface electrodes on the chin).
• Leg movements (surface electrodes on the lower leg).
• Breathing (sensors attached to the skin near the nose or mouth).
• Breathing effort and movement (small elastic belt placed around the chest or stomach).
• Blood oxygen levels (small sensor attached to the finger – not taken from actual blood samples).

During the course of the overnight study, sleep techs will monitor these parameters while you sleep. Once the night is over and all of the sleep parameters have been gathered and stored in the computer, the next step is to score the study. Here a technologist reviews the entire night’s study and determines the sleep stages, the number of apneas and correlates all the data.

All of the information gathered and correlated from the sleep study is now reviewed and interpreted by one of our reading physicians. They will make a final diagnosis and recommendations if needed. The report will be sent directly to your attending physician.