Sleep Apnea: What to Log for Your Sleep Doctor

Your partner hears you stop breathing at night, you fight to stay awake in the afternoon, or your doctor has mentioned a sleep study. That first appointment runs on your symptoms and on what someone else has seen while you sleep. You can keep those days on paper or in the symptom diary in Sam. Sleep duration and sleep stages from Apple Health are in the same app.

This guide covers what a sleep doctor asks and how a home test differs from a sleep lab. It also covers CPAP follow-up and ends with an example of four weeks of notes. None of it replaces a medical assessment.

What will a sleep doctor ask you?

InformedHealth.org, the patient site of Germany's independent health institute IQWiG, says the doctor first asks about your symptoms and lifestyle habits. A physical exam follows. The NHS adds a practical tip: if someone else has seen your symptoms, bring them along. It can be hard to tell on your own, so the NHS suggests asking someone to watch you sleep.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) lists what a sleep history should cover. Put together with the symptoms InformedHealth.org names, expect questions on:

• snoring and breathing pauses someone has seen
• gasping or choking at night, or waking with a racing heart or short of breath
• daytime sleepiness, nodding off without meaning to, and sleep that does not refresh you
• how long you sleep and how often you wake
• getting up to pee at night, night sweats, a dry mouth and headaches on waking
• trouble concentrating, memory lapses, irritability
• alcohol, sleeping pills, sedatives and other medicines

The AASM suggests rating sleepiness with a short questionnaire such as the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Its guideline also asks about high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack and car accidents.

The alcohol and medicine questions have a reason. According to InformedHealth.org, too much alcohol and sleeping pills or sedatives relax the throat muscles and can make sleep apnea worse. Do not stop prescribed medicines on your own; talk to your doctor first. Our post on the medication list to bring to your doctor shows what a complete list looks like.

Home sleep test or sleep lab: what is the difference?

The NHS says a GP may refer you to a specialist sleep clinic. You wear devices overnight that monitor things like breathing and heartbeat. Testing is usually done at home, and sometimes you stay overnight at the clinic.

The AASM calls polysomnography the standard diagnostic test. For uncomplicated adults at increased risk, it accepts either a lab study or a home test with a technically adequate device. In its definition, increased risk means excessive daytime sleepiness plus at least two of three signs. These are habitual loud snoring, witnessed pauses or gasping, and known high blood pressure. That definition only decides which kind of test fits. It is not a rule for whether to see a doctor: sleepiness or witnessed pauses are reason enough to talk to one. If a single home test is negative, inconclusive or technically inadequate, the AASM recommends a lab study.

The result you will hear about is the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). It counts breathing pauses and shallow-breathing episodes per hour of sleep. Your doctor reads it together with your symptoms and other conditions. How to read the number on your report is in AHI sleep study results.

Can a watch or an app stand in for the test?

No. The AASM recommends against using clinical tools, questionnaires or scoring algorithms to establish sleep apnea without a lab study or a home test. A home test in the AASM's sense has a nasal pressure sensor, chest and belly belts and a blood oxygen sensor. The alternative is peripheral arterial tonometry with blood oxygen and movement sensors. An accredited sleep center runs the test.

Apple says its sleep apnea notifications are not intended to diagnose, and that not all people with sleep apnea receive one. What a notification means and what to do next is in our post on the sleep apnea notification. How far to trust the watch's blood oxygen is covered in Apple Watch blood oxygen: normal range and accuracy.

Sam does not count breathing pauses and does not diagnose anything. It reads neither Apple's notification nor your CPAP machine's data. Sam shows sleep duration, sleep stages, respiratory rate and blood oxygen from Apple Health as a trend over days, weeks and months. Those are your watch's readings, not a lab measurement. What Sam keeps for sleep apnea is on the sleep apnea page.

What should you write down before the appointment?

About four weeks is a practical window. None of the sources sets a fixed length. Book the appointment now anyway; your notes do not have to be finished first. Some of it fits in Sam, some belongs on paper.

In Sam you log per day, with no time of day:

• Snoring, as present, when someone has told you
• Excessive daytime sleepiness, rated mild, moderate or severe
• Waking during the night, Headache, Difficulty concentrating, Fatigue and Night sweats
• Frequent urination, though without telling day from night
• days you drank alcohol, as yes or no
• your medicines in the medication list, with set times or "as needed"

On paper, because the symptom diary has no note field:

• what a bed partner saw, such as pauses or gasping, with the date
• when and how you woke, for example with a pounding heart or short of breath
• where you nodded off, especially at the wheel
• how much you drank, not only on which day
• your questions for the clinic

Letters and earlier sleep reports go into Health Vault as a photo or PDF.

What does a four-week log look like?

A made-up example, not a real person. Each row counts days with an entry. Sleep is the watch's weekly average from Apple Health; the pauses come from the paper notes.

The table shows how often something was logged. The numbers are invented and not a benchmark. They say nothing about whether someone has sleep apnea, and fewer days with symptoms are no reason to postpone an appointment. Whether sleep apnea is present, and how pronounced it is, only a test shows. Week 3 has more sleepy days, more snoring and two days with alcohol. Whether those belong together is for your doctor to judge. You bring it as a question.

In Sam, Wellbeing Statistics shows on how many days of a period you logged symptoms and which came up most often. You create the monthly report for the previous month yourself, as a PDF with a calendar of symptom days and your five most frequent symptoms. It needs notifications and Apple Health access, plus a chronic conditions answer in the settings ("none" counts). From your second report on, it also needs at least 15 of the last 30 days on which you recorded how you were; symptom entries do not count. The report summarizes your entries and is not a doctor report. Sam Chat answers questions such as "How have the last four weeks looked?". Its answers are based on your data and are not medical advice. The weekly columns you count yourself.

What gets checked once you are on CPAP?

InformedHealth.org calls CPAP the most effective therapy for severe sleep apnea. A mask connected to a machine gently pushes air in to keep the airways open. Common side effects are a dry throat and an irritated or blocked nose. The NHS says it works best if you use it every night. If it is uncomfortable or hard to use, tell your doctor.

The AASM recommends education before therapy starts. Follow-up should include troubleshooting and a look at objective usage and efficacy data, from the start and for as long as you use the machine. Its 2009 guideline calls for close follow-up in the first few weeks and a review once a year. At follow-up it checks whether sleepiness has gone and how your quality of life is. It also asks how satisfied you and your partner are and how well you stick with the machine.

The machine records data such as hours of use, remaining breathing events and mask leak. Sam does not read that data. You bring it from the device or your clinic.

What you can note yourself: how sleepy you feel in the daytime, in the symptom diary, so you can compare months. A blocked nose goes in as Nasal congestion. Mask problems and nights without the machine go on paper. If the mask or machine does not work for you, talk to your clinic early and do not wait for the next check. These are notes for the clinic, not a measure of whether therapy works. Whether therapy works is your clinic's call.

When should you not wait for the appointment?

If you get drowsy or nod off while driving, pull over, stop driving and do not drive again until a doctor has looked into the sleepiness. Book an appointment now: InformedHealth.org notes that dozing off at the wheel is dangerous. The same applies if you are so sleepy during the day that you could nod off at the wheel. Repeatedly witnessed breathing pauses and sleepiness that limits your day are also reasons to see a doctor soon.

For sudden severe shortness of breath or chest pain, call your local emergency number (112 in the EU, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US). Do not wait for it to pass.

Log your nights and symptoms in Sam and take them to your appointment

You walk into the sleep clinic with weeks of notes instead of memories: dated symptoms and your watch's nights in one app.

• Instead of scraps of paper: you log snoring, daytime sleepiness or headaches day by day in the symptom diary.
• Instead of screenshots: sleep duration and sleep stages from Apple Health show as a trend over weeks and months.
• Instead of guessing in the exam room: you create the monthly report yourself, and the PDF shows your symptom days as a calendar and your most frequent symptoms, plus a page on sleep.
• Instead of a loose folder: sleep reports and doctor's letters stay in the Health Vault.

Sam does not count breathing pauses, make a diagnosis, read CPAP data or say whether therapy works. More on the sleep apnea page.

Try Sam for free

Sam is a wellness companion, not a medical device. The app does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition or health state. Always consult qualified professionals for medical decisions.

Related reading

• Sleep Apnea vs Snoring: What Sets Them Apart
• AHI Sleep Study Results: How to Read Your Report
• Apple Watch sleep apnea notification: what to do
• Apple Watch blood oxygen: normal range and accuracy
• Medication list for your doctor: what to include

Sources

Updated: October 2026

• InformedHealth.org (IQWiG): Obstructive sleep apnea (updated 25 August 2026)
• NHS: Sleep apnoea (last reviewed 11 May 2026)
• AASM, Epstein LJ et al.: Clinical Guideline for the Evaluation, Management and Long-term Care of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Adults, J Clin Sleep Med 2009
• AASM, Kapur VK et al.: Clinical Practice Guideline for Diagnostic Testing for Adult Obstructive Sleep Apnea, J Clin Sleep Med 2017
• AASM, Patil SP et al.: Treatment of Adult Obstructive Sleep Apnea with Positive Airway Pressure, J Clin Sleep Med 2019
• Apple Support: Sleep apnea notifications on your Apple Watch (published 14 September 2026)