Guidelines for sleep studies in adults: a position statement of the Australasian Sleep Association

This a consensus statement by a committee of experienced sleep practitioners on the indications and performance of sleep studies in adults. The report draws significantly from several reviews of this type, which are referenced throughout the document [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [27], [37], [56] and randomised controlled trials. This guideline is designed to offer practical suggestions rather than act as an absolute standard. The guideline will require further modification as knowledge and technology continue to evolve. The committee was empanelled by the Australasian Sleep Association. Individual conflicts of interest were declared before the review began and are outlined in the Appendix. Individual conflict of interest statements were vetted by the ASA Board and were declared to all other committee members.

The report highlights the expanding and evolving nature of sleep investigations. It stresses the central role of the expert clinician in establishing the indications for sleep investigations and in the interpretation of sleep study results. A major concern regarding the performance of sleep studies is the lack of uniformity of definitions (e.g. definition of abnormal breathing events) between sleep-centres. This document seeks to improve standards within Australian and New Zealand by encouraging an evidenced-based approach to the performance of sleep testing, by promoting an internationally accepted and uniform set of definitions of sleep disordered breathing and by encouraging a high standard of laboratory quality control. This guideline provides indications for sleep studies and the methods for performing and reporting studies. The statement substantially revises and extends the 1994 and 2005 TSANZ/ASA [1], [2] guideline on Sleep Studies.