It's not so much that it's a racket, it's that it's never been considered a public health problem and there are enough doctors that specialize in this area. I'

It's not so much that it's a racket, it's that it's never been considered a public health problem and there are enough doctors that specialize in this area. I'm a diagnosed narcoleptic and have obstructive sleep apnea, which is a lot better now after having a tonsillectomy about 2-3 years go. I too am a patient at the same clinic you go to (Stanford) and have been a patient at two other clinics, one in Raleigh, NC and one in São Paulo, Brazil. I don't even remember how many sleep studies I've done. I think 8. Five in Raleigh (One for diagnosis and for as part of the clinical study that approved sodium oxybate for general narcolepsy and not just cataplexy). I did another two in SP IIRC and I did one at Stanford, but should do another one since my surgery. First thing I recommend is drop your HMO in favor of a PPO. Having to see a GP first is the biggest waste of time and you know your symptoms well enough to at least figure out what specialist to see. When booking an appointment with the clinic, you can be seen sooner by not picking who will see you. The main doctor at Stanford is Dr. Mignot. He's amazing and bar none the best of the sleep doctors I've seen. The reason that clinic is booked out forever is because he and his clinic are that much better. Booking in the summer months is particularly bad because there are lots of younger patients from elsewhere in the country that will visit Stanford due to its reputation. You're not just competing with local patients but people everywhere in the US. Also let the receptionist know that you're a local patient and that you would be happy to be on the waitlist to be called in case of a cancellation. You'll be seen much sooner this way. If you actually have sleep problems, all those wires, as inconvenient as they are, are unlikely to impact the results much. In every sleep study I've done, I've been in REM sleep in about ~2 minutes of laying my head on the pillow after the lights have been turned out. All the numbers they use for diagnosis are based on the same methodology with that equipment. If the inconvenience impacts the results than that is already accounted for. I highly recommend looking into the surgery option (tonsillectomy and lingual reduction) if your ENT doctor (mine is Dr. Capassso) thinks you're a candidate for it. My nighttime breathing was night and day better and I don't snore as much. That said, it's one of the most painful surgeries you can get as an adult. I didn't eat food for more than two weeks and didn't even miss it because it hurt to even think about it. The results were worth it. Yeah, the whole process sucks at times, but it's not trivial stuff to figure out and if you need this, it will make such a huge improvement in your life that you'll be asking yourself who has time to not go through all that song and dance.