Occult sleep apnea in a recruited sample of older adults with insomnia

Although costly polysomnography (PSG) is not routinely performed with peopl e with insomnia, it may be more necessary with recruited older adults with insomnia because this population may pose a greater risk of veiled sleep di sorders compared with younger age goups and with referred samples. The pres ent PSG screening of a recruited sample of older adults with insomnia found a 29%-43% rate of undiagnosed sleep apnea (SA), depending on whether an ap nea-hypopnea index of 15 or 5 was used, after interviews had already screen ed our obvious cases of SA. Also, PSGs revealed a 4% rate of occult periodi c limb movements. A discriminani analysis identified overweight men reporti ng dry mouth at highest risk for occult SA, with an apnea-versus-insomnia c lassification success rate of 78%. Using PSG evaluations in research on ins omnia in recruited older adults is requisite to preclude substantial repres entation of occult SA.