What effect does adjusting the sensitivity from 5 μV/mm to 10 μV/mm have?

When the sensitivity setting on a device is increased from 5 μV/mm to 10 μV/mm, it effectively means that the system will require a larger voltage change to achieve the same pen deflection. In essence, the device is becoming less sensitive to changes in the electrical signal.

Given that the sensitivity setting is now more stringent, a signal that would have prompted a certain amount of deflection at 5 μV/mm would only produce half that deflection when the sensitivity is adjusted to 10 μV/mm. This is because the scale of measurement is now effectively doubled; it takes twice as much voltage to produce the same amount of movement. Therefore, the pen deflection is indeed reduced by one-half, correlating to the change in sensitivity.

This concept is important in understanding how adjustments to the sensitivity of measurement instruments can influence the apparent response of the system, a crucial aspect for sleep technicians when interpreting data accurately.