What is polysomnography?

Also known as: sleep study, PSG.

Polysomnography is a diagnostic sleep test conducted on a child while they sleep to diagnose sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in children.

During the study record continuous and simultaneous recordings of multiple body measurements (including brain waves, blood oxygen level, heart rate, breathing and others) are made to identify sleep breathing abnormalities like obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS- associated with snoring, gasping, mouth-breathing or sleeping in unusual positions), or associated with head/face (craniofacial) abnormalities, neurological and muscular disorders that may cause obstruction to the nose/windpipe (nasotracheal or upper airway abnormalities) and other conditions.

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM