A sleep evaluation is painless, and could help secure the sleep you need in the years to come.

Patients are evaluated by a medical doctor and a psychologist who specialize in treating patients who have difficulty sleeping. Each patient may undergo psychosocial history and standard psychological testing. Medical and drug histories are closely evaluated.

Each patient completes a questionnaire about his or her sleeping problems. You may be asked to keep a sleep diary for one or two weeks. An extensive follow-up interview with a sleep center physician then focuses on the history and symptoms of your sleep problems.

Patients are scheduled to come to the Sleep Center at Mercy to sleep for one or two nights. A variety of electrodes and monitoring devices are attached to you during a sleep test. While you sleep, our technicians monitor your brain wave activity, muscle activity in your chin, eye movement, leg muscle activity, oxygen levels of your blood, airflow from your nose and mouth and your chest and abdominal effort to breathe.

The results of this evaluation are studied by our staff and, depending on your diagnosis, our physician will discuss available treatment options. Treatment plans are discussed with you following a sleep study. When appropriate, you'll come back to the Sleep Center at Mercy for follow-up evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the treatments.

In most cases, the cost of sleep evaluations is covered by most insurance companies.