Rides to an Overnight Sleep Study in Massachusetts

A standard overnight sleep study does not use sedation, so most sleep labs do not require you to bring an escort and most patients drive themselves home. The problem is the clock. Check in is usually around 8 in the evening, discharge is around 6 in the morning, and some centers ask that your ride arrive no later than 6:30.

Our wheelchair accessible van. Sleep labs discharge at the hour when rides are hardest to find.

Do I need someone to drive me home after a sleep study?

Usually no. A diagnostic overnight study records your breathing, heart rhythm and movement while you sleep. There is no anesthesia and no sedative, and many centers state plainly that their technicians do not hand out medication. That makes it different from a colonoscopy or an eye procedure, where the office will not release you without a named adult. Your lab's own instruction sheet is the only thing that settles it, so read it and ask when you book. If your procedure is one of the ones that does require an escort, we cover that separately in what to do when you have no ride home after a procedure.

What time does an overnight sleep study start and end?

Figure on roughly 8 in the evening to 6 in the morning, about ten hours in the room. Several centers publish a pickup window and ask that your ride be there by about 6:30. Many offer a private shower before you leave and ask you to bring your own toiletries, sleepwear, photo identification, insurance card and your CPAP mask if you use one. Skip caffeine and alcohol that day.

Why is a 6 in the morning discharge so hard to cover?

Because it falls outside the hours most free rides run. Council on Aging vans and municipal senior transportation generally operate weekday business hours. A family member who works has to leave the house before 6 to get you. A taxi or ride share may or may not be available at that hour where you live. Call the free options first and ask the real question, which is whether they will take an evening drop off and a 6 in the morning return, not whether they go to that hospital.

What if my doctor also ordered a nap study for the next day?

Then plan on a full day on top of the night. A multiple sleep latency test is always done after an overnight study. It is five nap trials spaced two hours apart, each about twenty minutes, with starts that commonly run from 8 in the morning through 4 in the afternoon, and one center tells patients they leave around 5 in the afternoon. There may also be a urine drug screen in the gap between the overnight study and the first nap, and some medications have to be stopped weeks ahead. None of the patient instruction sheets we reviewed say whether you may drive yourself home afterward, so ask the lab directly, especially if the test was ordered because you are already falling asleep during the day.

Can a family member stay with me at the lab overnight?

Policies differ by center and by room, so ask when you book. If someone does go in with you, there is usually nothing for them to do once you are wired up and settled. That is worth knowing before you pay anyone to sit in a waiting room for ten hours.

What does a ride to a sleep study cost?

Wheelchair accessible transportation is $115 each way and $230 round trip within five miles of the pickup address, then $2 a mile beyond that. A sleep study is two legs about ten hours apart, so tell us both times when you book and we will confirm the price for your address. Our full rate card is on how much wheelchair transportation costs in Massachusetts.

Do I need an aide as well as a ride?

Most people do not. If packing and getting out the door is the hard part, home health aide care is $45 an hour, one to eight hours a day, with no minimum contract, no assessment fee and no four hour minimum per visit, so an aide can help you get ready and then leave. Our aides are trained, background checked and insured. They are not nurses, so they do not administer medication, including insulin, do not change dressings and do not make clinical judgments. They can be present while you take your own medication, help if something goes wrong and call for help.

An aide can help you get ready and get to the door. For a sleep study, nobody needs to stay.

What should I try before paying for a ride?

Three things, in this order. If you have MassHealth, ask the ordering provider to request covered transportation for you, because the request goes through the provider rather than through you. If you are on a Medicare Advantage plan, check the benefits summary for a transportation allowance, since some plans include a set number of trips a year. Then call your town Council on Aging and ask about their hours. If any of those will cover an overnight study, use them and keep your money. More of these options are listed on free rides to medical appointments for Massachusetts seniors.

Where does Care Remedy drive?

We run about 30,000 transportation trips a year from offices in Woburn, Springfield and Brockton. Call 781 957 8076 or email info@careremedyinc.com with your lab, your drop off time and your pickup time, and we will tell you what the two legs cost.

This page is general information about transportation, not medical advice. Your sleep center's instruction sheet decides what you may and may not do, so confirm the details with them or with your doctor.