What to Take to a Sleep Study: A Complete Checklist

A sleep study, formally called polysomnography, usually means spending one night in a clinical sleep lab while technicians monitor your brain waves, breathing, heart rate, and muscle movements. Packing for it is a lot like packing for a single night in a hotel, with a few extra considerations driven by the sensors you’ll be wearing and the goal of sleeping as normally as possible in an unfamiliar room. Below is a practical breakdown of what to bring, what to leave behind, and how to prepare so the study captures the most accurate picture of your sleep.

Comfortable Sleepwear

Technicians will attach sensors to your scalp, face, chest, and legs, so what you wear matters more than it would on a typical night away from home. Loose-fitting, two-piece pajamas work best. A button-down or zip-up top is ideal because it gives the tech easy access to place chest and abdominal sensors without asking you to pull a shirt over your head once electrodes are already glued to your scalp. Avoid anything tight around the neck or waist, since snug elastic or collars can interfere with the respiratory belts that measure your breathing effort.

Shorts or loose pants with a soft waistband make it easy to attach leg sensors used to detect movement disorders like restless legs syndrome. If you normally sleep in very little clothing, a loose T-shirt and shorts are the minimum most labs expect for comfort and modesty, since a technician may need to enter the room during the night. Socks and a light layer are worth tossing in your bag too, because sleep lab temperatures tend to run cool to encourage sleep onset.

Toiletries and Skin-Care Dos and Don’ts

Bring your regular toothbrush, toothpaste, and any basic toiletries you’d pack for one night away. Most labs have a private bathroom where you can get ready for bed and clean up in the morning. Where things diverge from a normal overnight trip is anything you put on your skin or hair.

On the day of the study, skip the following:

Hair products: Gels, oils, leave-in conditioners, and heavy styling products create a barrier between the scalp electrodes and your skin, weakening the signal. Wash your hair that day with plain shampoo and leave it product-free.
Lotions and moisturizers: Body lotion on the legs and chest can interfere with electrode adhesion. If your skin is very dry, apply moisturizer only to areas that won’t have sensors, like your hands and feet.
Nail polish on fingertips: The pulse oximeter that clips to your finger reads blood oxygen through the nail bed. Dark polish or acrylic nails can block the light sensor and produce inaccurate readings. Remove polish from at least one index finger before you arrive.
Heavy makeup: Facial electrodes go near your eyes, jawline, and chin. Foundation and concealer can reduce adhesion. Light makeup is usually fine, but you’ll be asked to wash your face before the hookup anyway.

If you use a prescription skin treatment like a retinoid cream, just skip it for that one night. Bring your own face wash if the lab’s generic soap doesn’t agree with your skin, since you’ll want to clean off the electrode paste in the morning.

Comfort Items for an Unfamiliar Room

Sleep labs are designed to be quiet and dark, but they’re still not your bedroom. Most rooms look something like a basic hotel room with a hospital-grade bed. Bringing a few familiar items can help you relax enough to fall asleep despite the wires.

Your own pillow is probably the single most helpful comfort item. Labs provide pillows and bedding, but a pillow you’re used to removes one variable in an already unusual night. A light blanket or throw from home can serve the same purpose if temperature or texture matters to you. Some people also bring a white-noise app on their phone (more on electronics below), though many labs already provide a fan or sound machine.

Earplugs and an eye mask are worth packing even if you don’t use them at home. Research on sleep in monitored environments shows that ambient noise and light significantly reduce sleep quality, increase the amount of time spent in light sleep, and delay the onset of REM sleep. In studies simulating these conditions, wearing earplugs and eye masks improved perceived sleep quality and helped restore more normal sleep architecture compared to going without them.¹ A follow-up study found that the combination of earplugs and an eye mask shortened the time it took to fall asleep and increased both total sleep time and REM sleep under noisy, bright conditions.² Sleep labs are quieter than the hospital wards modeled in those studies, but hallway noise, HVAC systems, and indicator lights on monitoring equipment can still be disruptive for light sleepers. Check with your lab first: most allow earplugs and eye masks as long as they don’t interfere with the electrodes, but a few prefer you skip them so the recording reflects your typical sleep environment.

What to Avoid Before the Study

What you skip during the hours before your appointment is just as important as what you pack. The goal is to arrive in a state that reflects a normal night for you, not a night artificially altered by stimulants or sedatives.

Caffeine is the big one. A well-known study found that a moderate dose of caffeine taken even six hours before bedtime still caused measurable sleep disruption compared to a placebo, with effects on total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and how long subjects lay awake after falling asleep.³ Most sleep labs ask patients to cut off caffeine by early afternoon on the day of the study. That includes coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate, and some medications that contain caffeine. If you’re unsure about a specific product, read the label or ask your referring doctor.

Alcohol is similarly off-limits on the day of the study. While a drink might make you feel drowsy, it fragments sleep in the second half of the night, suppresses REM sleep, and can worsen obstructive sleep apnea by relaxing the muscles of the upper airway. This would muddy the results the lab is trying to capture. Most clinics ask you to avoid alcohol entirely for at least 24 hours beforehand.

Unless your doctor has specifically told you otherwise, continue taking your regular prescription medications as normal. Abruptly stopping certain medications, particularly sleep aids, antidepressants, or anti-anxiety drugs, can cause rebound effects that distort the study just as much as taking a new substance would. If you’re on a sleep medication and your doctor wants to see how you sleep without it, they will give you a specific tapering plan ahead of time. Don’t make that call on your own the night of the study.

Napping during the day is another thing to skip. You want to arrive with a normal level of sleepiness, not so rested that you can’t fall asleep in the lab. Stick to your usual daytime routine and avoid sleeping in late that morning if you can help it.

Paperwork, Medications, and a Sleep Log

Sleep labs typically send a packet of forms ahead of the study, but it’s smart to bring a few things on your own:

Photo ID and insurance card: The front desk will need both when you check in.
Referral paperwork: If your insurance requires a referral from your primary care doctor, bring a copy even if the lab says they already have it on file. A missing referral can delay or cancel the study.
Medication list: Write down every medication and supplement you take, including dosages. The technician needs this to interpret the results accurately, since many common drugs affect sleep architecture.
Your actual medications: Bring anything you take at bedtime or first thing in the morning. The lab will let you take them on your normal schedule.

If your doctor asked you to keep a sleep diary in the weeks leading up to the study, bring it along. Sleep diaries are a useful complement to the objective data the lab collects, because they capture your perception of how well and how long you sleep on typical nights. Research comparing sleep diaries to one-time questionnaires has found that the two methods don’t always agree: diaries tend to report longer sleep durations than questionnaires, and people with insomnia symptoms show the largest gap between the two measures.⁴ A diary kept consistently over one to two weeks gives your sleep specialist a richer baseline than your answers to a few survey questions on intake night.

Even if no one asked you to keep a formal diary, jotting down a few notes over the week before the study is helpful. Record roughly when you went to bed, when you woke up, how many times you woke during the night, and how rested you felt in the morning. This kind of detail helps the clinician compare what the sensors recorded to what your nights normally feel like at home.

Electronics and Passing the Time

You’ll typically arrive at the sleep lab in the evening, somewhere between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m., and the hookup process takes 30 to 45 minutes. After that, you have time to settle in before the tech asks you to try to fall asleep, usually around your normal bedtime. That leaves a window where you might want something to do.

Most labs allow you to bring a phone, tablet, or laptop and use it until lights-out. A book or magazine is an even better option if you’re trying to wind down without screen light. If you do bring a device, keep the brightness turned down and switch to a warm screen tone if your phone has a night mode. The blue-heavy light from screens at full brightness can delay melatonin release and push your sleep onset later, which is exactly what you don’t want on the one night the lab is measuring how quickly you fall asleep.

Bring a phone charger. Your phone will sit on the nightstand all night, and if the lab uses it as a point of contact for the morning (some do), you’ll want it alive. Headphones are useful if you want to listen to something calming before bed, but check with the technician before wearing them to sleep, as they can shift scalp electrodes.

What Changes for a Home Sleep Study

Not every sleep study happens in a lab. Home sleep tests are a simpler, less expensive option increasingly used to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea in patients who have a high likelihood of the condition. Instead of a full polysomnography setup, a home test typically involves a portable device that monitors breathing, oxygen levels, and sometimes heart rate, but not brain waves or leg movements. The equipment is usually picked up from or mailed by the sleep clinic with instructions for self-application.

Your packing list for a home study is essentially nothing extra, since you’re sleeping in your own bed. But the preparation advice still applies: skip caffeine after early afternoon, avoid alcohol, remove nail polish from at least one finger for the pulse oximeter, and don’t apply lotion to the areas where sensors will sit (usually the chest and nose). Follow the device instructions carefully, since there’s no technician to reattach a sensor that falls off at 2 a.m.

The trade-off is that a home test records far fewer data channels than an in-lab study. It’s good at catching moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, but it can miss milder cases and doesn’t detect other conditions like periodic limb movements, narcolepsy, or parasomnias. If your doctor suspects something beyond straightforward sleep apnea, they’ll likely send you to the lab regardless of convenience.

If You Use a CPAP or Other Sleep Device

If you already use a CPAP or BiPAP machine at home and are coming in for a titration study (where the lab adjusts your pressure settings) or a follow-up, bring your own mask and headgear. Labs stock a variety of masks, but using one you’re already comfortable with produces better data and a more representative night of sleep. Bring your machine’s SD card or data download if your doctor has asked for recent compliance data.

For patients using an oral appliance, dental retainer, or mandibular advancement device, bring it along so the technician knows about it and can factor it into the setup. The same goes for supplemental oxygen equipment: bring your prescription and any tubing you normally use.

Preparing Kids for a Sleep Study

Pediatric sleep studies follow the same basic format as adult ones but require extra planning to help the child feel safe in an unfamiliar setting. Many children’s sleep labs allow a parent to stay in the room overnight, so pack for yourself as well.

For the child, bring their usual bedtime routine in a bag: favorite pajamas, a stuffed animal, a bedtime book, a blanket from home. Familiar objects genuinely help kids settle down in a strange room with wires attached to their head. If your child uses a pacifier or bottle at bedtime, bring it. If they have a specific bedtime snack routine, pack that too, though avoid anything with caffeine or a lot of sugar close to lights-out.

Talk to your child about what will happen in age-appropriate terms before the night of the study. Explain that stickers (the electrodes) will be placed on their skin to watch them sleep, that it doesn’t hurt, and that you’ll be right there. Some pediatric labs offer a pre-visit tour or send a preparation booklet with pictures of the room and equipment, which can take the fear out of the unknown.

A Quick Packing Checklist

For easy reference, here’s everything covered above pulled into one list:

Sleepwear: Loose two-piece pajamas, ideally with a button-down or zip-up top. Socks and a light extra layer.
Pillow: Your own, if it helps you sleep.
Toiletries: Toothbrush, toothpaste, face wash, deodorant. Leave hair products, body lotion, and heavy makeup at home.
Earplugs and eye mask: Confirm with the lab that these are allowed.
Medications: Everything you take at night and in the morning, in original bottles.
Paperwork: Photo ID, insurance card, referral if needed, medication list, sleep diary or log.
CPAP mask and headgear: If you already use one.
Phone and charger: Plus a book or magazine for winding down.
Change of clothes: For the morning. Electrode paste washes out of hair easily with warm water, but you may want a hat or headband for the drive home.
Snack: A light, caffeine-free snack for the evening if you tend to eat before bed. Most labs don’t have a kitchen.
For children: Favorite stuffed animal, blanket, bedtime book, and a parent’s overnight bag.

What the Lab Provides

You don’t need to overthink packing. The lab handles all the medical equipment: electrodes, respiratory belts, the pulse oximeter, any recording hardware, and the monitoring software. They provide a bed, sheets, blankets, and usually a pillow. Most rooms have a television, and many have Wi-Fi. Bathrooms are private, and the tech can briefly disconnect you from the monitoring leads if you need to get up during the night.

Breakfast is not standard at most labs. You’ll be disconnected and free to leave early in the morning, typically between 5:30 and 7:00 a.m., so plan to grab something on the way home or to work. Results usually take one to two weeks to process, after which your sleep specialist will schedule a follow-up to discuss findings and any recommended treatment.