Insufficient Sleep Is a Public Health Epidemic
Having just been officially diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea today, let me tell you why that part of insufficient sleep is an epidemic: the system is a <i>racket</i>. Here are the steps to get your sleep apnea solved:<p>1. Go to your GP and have them refer you to a sleep specialist.<p>2. Make an appointment with the sleep specialist (one major clinic here in the Bay Area is booked out weeks in advance). Do that office visit where you get the prescription for an overnight sleep study.<p>3. Wait 2-3 more weeks for your sleep study date, where you get wired up like you're joining the Matrix, and then told to go to sleep at 9:30pm. Riiight.<p>4. Have a follow up visit at the office in step 2. Go over results. Possibly get prescribed a CPAP machine.<p>5. Find an in-network provider to buy the CPAP from, and make an appointment with <i>them</i>. This is not an off the shelf thing, expect to spend 2-3 hours in the office/store. Wait time: a couple days to a couple weeks.<p>6. (optional, if the study from step 3 wasn't split-phase) Return for another sleep study with your new machine so they can calibrate it.<p>7. Make another follow up appointment to have the doc look at the report from step 6 and actually perform the calibration.<p>Dude, WHO HAS TIME FOR THIS? Ironically, this whole process is a bit of a nightmare.