I Tried a Sleep Apnea Self-Check and I Think I Need to See a Doctor
Lately, I haven't been feeling refreshed even when I wake up, and I'm so sleepy during the day that I looked into a sleep study (polysomnography). I've snored for a long time, and people around me say they hear my breathing stop. After looking into it, I learned that not treating it significantly raises the risk of cardiovascular disease.
There's also a self-assessment checklist: if you have three or more of the four items—choking during sleep, morning headaches, daytime sleepiness, and high blood pressure—they recommend getting tested. I match three of them, so I'm planning to visit an ENT clinic first next week. If anyone here has had the test, I'm curious whether it's covered by supplemental private insurance.
6 answers
Yeah, I got tested too, and going to the hospital was definitely the right call. After starting treatment, my daytime drowsiness dropped a lot.
I qualified for all three items too and got tested, and it was covered by my indemnity insurance. Polysomnography is often done inpatient, so it gets processed under that criterion. Ask the hospital in advance.
Well, that's a bit of a simplistic self-diagnosis—it kind of encourages over-testing. If symptoms are really severe, you should go, but aren't two out of the three things things anyone could relate to?
It's really tough when you don't feel refreshed in the morning, T_T. I didn't have sleep apnea either, but after getting tested and adjusting my daily routine, I felt a bit better.
Indemnity insurance will likely cover most of the polysomnography. However, if done as an outpatient, there may be many non-covered items, so be sure to ask for it to be done as an inpatient test.
If your snoring has been going on for a long time, an ENT clinic is fine, but you need to determine whether it's a nasal structure issue or a soft palate issue. I had a test done at a sleep clinic and was prescribed an oral appliance, which worked well for me. Choosing the right hospital is important.