Figure 8. Supine only sleeping position.

This patient spends almost their entire night in the supine position. The lack of variation in posture means that no assessment can be made about the relationship between posture and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity. A simple survey about the preferred sleeping position at home may help to determine whether this postural variation reflects normal sleep, or may be an artifact of the sleep laboratory environment. Even if this person had position-dependent OSA that was able to be elucidated in a follow-up study with enforced lateral sleep, the apparent preference for supine sleep may suggest that the individual is unlikely to tolerate a postural therapy.