Sleep Study - "You're got a problem"
That's what the tech said as he was removing the bajillion leads from my head, when I told him that was what a "normal" night of sleep was for me. I use quotes because that's w/o sleep medication, which was prescribed as a stopgap while we figured out if there's an actual sleep problem and what it might be.
The good news is that I managed to "perform" exactly as hoped. They now have a pile of data proving that I can't sleep for shit, so hopefully they can point to a reason. The bad news is not only did I get a crappy amount of sleep, but I got to do it wearing a bunch of goo covered leads taped to various places. And because it's Christmas Eve day on a college campus, there's not really any place to get breakfast, and I was awake from like 4:30am on, and I'm super hungry.
As for the study process itself, I do not recommend it as a vacation destination. Getting wired up and into bed was painless, but a lengthy process. "Bedtime" was 11pm, at which point I wondered "Can I read/use my iPhone? I'm not even remotely tired, really. At least turn on a podcast or something?" Then I figured that since they were recording (general AND a "Snore mic" taped to my throat) that maybe unimportant sounds should be avoided. And that I'd play nice and just lay there, which was more what they wanted to record/observe than me reading twitter on a phone.
There was apparently some trouble with the belts/sensors they use to monitor breathing, so after 2-3 visits to adjust them and/or check connections they just replaced them at about 12:15. The tech kept apologizing and saying that after he did whatever I could "get back to sleep". I didn't bother to tell him I hadn't been TO sleep yet.
So it'd been an hour and fifteen minutes at that point, and I'm guessing it was at least another thirty minutes until I fell asleep but it could have been up to an hour. The worst part here was that I couldn't really turn to lie on either side, which is what I do at home to at least pretend I'm trying to make an effort to find a position to fall asleep.
I had two dreams. One neutral and one "bad". I woke up in between, although I have no idea what time it was. The neutral one was me sitting at Angelo's for breakfast across from a woman who knew me, but I didn't recognize. I think she was telling me that I was doing the right thing having the sleep study, or doing well during it (although it was over at that point, obviously). There was someone to my left, but I never saw more than their shoulder.
The "bad" one was me dreaming that the study was over and that they were unhooking me from everything. The last bit of sleep/time in the dream was really uncomfortable, and then the "clean up" process took a long time, and there were multiple techs who were kind of dickish about the whole thing.
Then I woke up, and it was 4:15am, and I was wide awake. I thought about asking the magic box if they wanted to end the study early, because I wasn't going to fall asleep again, but I decided against it. The tech "woke" me at 6:10, then these too-bright lights came on, and he came in and spent 15-20 minutes pulling everything off me. That's when he gave me his "You've got a problem" summary, after asking if this had been a normal night of sleep. Normally, I guess the report is all done in 7-10 days, but with the holiday break I'm guessing I won't hear anything until mid-late January. Anecdotally, there's nothing really to suggest it's sleep apnea. From what little Mer can/has reported, it seems more likely a limb movement problem. Whatever.
Posted via email from Dann's posterous
The good news is that I managed to "perform" exactly as hoped. They now have a pile of data proving that I can't sleep for shit, so hopefully they can point to a reason. The bad news is not only did I get a crappy amount of sleep, but I got to do it wearing a bunch of goo covered leads taped to various places. And because it's Christmas Eve day on a college campus, there's not really any place to get breakfast, and I was awake from like 4:30am on, and I'm super hungry.
As for the study process itself, I do not recommend it as a vacation destination. Getting wired up and into bed was painless, but a lengthy process. "Bedtime" was 11pm, at which point I wondered "Can I read/use my iPhone? I'm not even remotely tired, really. At least turn on a podcast or something?" Then I figured that since they were recording (general AND a "Snore mic" taped to my throat) that maybe unimportant sounds should be avoided. And that I'd play nice and just lay there, which was more what they wanted to record/observe than me reading twitter on a phone.
There was apparently some trouble with the belts/sensors they use to monitor breathing, so after 2-3 visits to adjust them and/or check connections they just replaced them at about 12:15. The tech kept apologizing and saying that after he did whatever I could "get back to sleep". I didn't bother to tell him I hadn't been TO sleep yet.
So it'd been an hour and fifteen minutes at that point, and I'm guessing it was at least another thirty minutes until I fell asleep but it could have been up to an hour. The worst part here was that I couldn't really turn to lie on either side, which is what I do at home to at least pretend I'm trying to make an effort to find a position to fall asleep.
I had two dreams. One neutral and one "bad". I woke up in between, although I have no idea what time it was. The neutral one was me sitting at Angelo's for breakfast across from a woman who knew me, but I didn't recognize. I think she was telling me that I was doing the right thing having the sleep study, or doing well during it (although it was over at that point, obviously). There was someone to my left, but I never saw more than their shoulder.
The "bad" one was me dreaming that the study was over and that they were unhooking me from everything. The last bit of sleep/time in the dream was really uncomfortable, and then the "clean up" process took a long time, and there were multiple techs who were kind of dickish about the whole thing.
Then I woke up, and it was 4:15am, and I was wide awake. I thought about asking the magic box if they wanted to end the study early, because I wasn't going to fall asleep again, but I decided against it. The tech "woke" me at 6:10, then these too-bright lights came on, and he came in and spent 15-20 minutes pulling everything off me. That's when he gave me his "You've got a problem" summary, after asking if this had been a normal night of sleep. Normally, I guess the report is all done in 7-10 days, but with the holiday break I'm guessing I won't hear anything until mid-late January. Anecdotally, there's nothing really to suggest it's sleep apnea. From what little Mer can/has reported, it seems more likely a limb movement problem. Whatever.
Posted via email from Dann's posterous