You ordered the sleep study. You were pretty sure it was going to show sleep apnea.
The pattern was classic: waking every 2-3 hours, never feeling rested, fatigue through the day.
Then the results came back showing…
“No significant sleep apnea”.
And now you’re sitting with the patient who’s still struggling, a normal-ish sleep study, and not much of a roadmap for what to do next.
This scenario comes up more than you’d think, and it’s exactly what inspired this week’s video.
A reader wrote to me asking:
“Do you have any information on treatment for interrupted sleep patterns, for example, waking every 2-3 hours in the context of a negative home sleep study?”
It’s such a good question because a home sleep apnea test tells you one thing but misses a lot of others.
In this week’s video, I’m sharing what to do next, including the 4 broad categories that drive most sleep fragmentation, some case examples, and a personal sleep fragmentation story of my own.
Fair warning: I was recording this while getting over an upper respiratory infection, so please excuse the congestion.
It actually felt fitting, because nasal congestion is one of those commonly overlooked factors that can fragment sleep, and I got a firsthand reminder of that while making this video!