PSG Test: What It Is, Why It's Done, and What to Expect

When you're constantly tired, snore loudly, or wake up gasping for air, your body might be screaming for a PSG test, a comprehensive overnight sleep study that records brain activity, breathing, heart rate, and movement to diagnose sleep disorders. Also known as polysomnography, it's the most accurate way to find out if something's wrong with your sleep. Unlike a quick doctor’s visit or a home sleep test, a PSG test captures everything — from how often you stop breathing to whether your legs kick uncontrollably at night.

This isn’t just for people who snore. If you’ve been told you stop breathing during sleep, feel exhausted even after eight hours in bed, or have been diagnosed with high blood pressure or heart issues that won’t improve, a PSG test, a comprehensive overnight sleep study that records brain activity, breathing, heart rate, and movement to diagnose sleep disorders. Also known as polysomnography, it's the most accurate way to find out if something's wrong with your sleep. might be the missing piece. It’s also used to confirm sleep apnea, a condition where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, often due to blocked airways or brain signal issues. Also known as obstructive sleep apnea, it affects over 20 million Americans and is strongly linked to stroke, diabetes, and heart failure.. Doctors use the results to decide if you need a CPAP machine, lifestyle changes, or even surgery. And if you’re on medications that might disrupt sleep — like certain antidepressants or steroids — a PSG test can show if those are making things worse.

What happens during the test? You’ll spend the night in a quiet room, wired with sensors that don’t hurt but do record everything. No needles. No pain. Just a technician watching your sleep patterns on a screen from another room. You can move, turn, even get up to use the bathroom. The goal isn’t to make you sleep perfectly — it’s to see how your body behaves when you’re actually asleep. The data collected helps doctors spot patterns: how many times you wake up, how low your oxygen drops, whether your heart races unnaturally. These aren’t guesses — they’re numbers that lead to real treatment.

What you’ll find in the posts below are real, practical stories and guides from people who’ve been through this. You’ll learn how to prepare for the test, what to pack, how to handle anxiety, and what the results actually mean for your daily life. Some posts dive into how overnight sleep monitoring, the process of recording physiological data during sleep to identify disorders like apnea, narcolepsy, or restless legs syndrome. Also known as polysomnography, it's the clinical standard for sleep disorder diagnosis. compares to at-home tests. Others explain how sleep issues connect to medications you’re already taking — like antibiotics that cause night sweats or antidepressants that mess with REM sleep. This isn’t theory. It’s what works for real people who finally got answers after years of being told, "It’s just stress."