Active duty military personnel lead stressful lives. Whether deployed abroad or serving stateside, demands on their time, bodies, and families can prove difficult to manage. Studies have shown that this stress can negatively affect the sleeping habits of active duty military personnel. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a recent study revealed that over 85% of active duty military suffer from some type of sleep disorder.

For those of you that have had your CPAP prescriptions for a long time, you may be wondering "when should I have a second sleep study performed?" And this is a great question that often goes unanswered by medical professionals.

Currently, there is not set time frame in which your current CPAP prescription expires. Unlike other prescriptions in which annual clinic visits are required to assess any prescription changes, CPAP users are not required to have regular sleep studies to verify any pressure change needs.

It may sound a little strange to hear, but not all sleep tests conducted at sleep clinics monitor you as you sleep. One of the tests you may be asked to take is called an MWT, or Maintenance of Wakefulness Test.

While most tests are designed to diagnose sleep disorders during sleep (polysomnogram), monitor how quickly patients fall asleep (MSLT), or to calibrate CPAP machines (CPAP titration) after breathing disorders are diagnosed, the maintenance of wakefulness test is intended to challenge patients to attempt to stay awake during periodic trials.