A new study about Obstructive Sleep Apnea shows that sleep apnea patients sleep no differently in a hospital than a hotel. The study shows that there was no difference in sleep parameters between two groups of patients, one housed in a hotel, one in a hospital.
The study measured “sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, REM sleep latency, total amount of slow wave sleep, and total stage 1 sleep“.
There is a growing trend of hotel-based sleep laboratories, but this study proves that there is no benefit to the patient of being housed in a hotel for a sleep apnea study. Patients with obstructed sleep apnea are so familiar with hospital settings, due to the chronic nature of the disease, that they do not feel any less comfortable sleeping in a hospital.
Of course, things are different for those of us with CPAP Machines. A CPAP machine user needs his machine in order to sleep properly at night, and not having that trusty Resmed equipment with a CPAP mask on your face does make a big difference. I don’t care how comfortable a hotel is, without a Respironics or other CPAP machine, I won’t be staying there!