Sleep Study

So. The Sleep Study!

I get really sleepy in the afternoons. I think lots of people do. But I asked my doctor about it and she recommended I meet with the sleep doctor, and he met with me and recommended a sleep study. So I did one! And yes, before this, we did all kinds of blood work and tests, and no, I don't have low iron, or a thyroid problem, or a blood sugar problem. In fact, my sleep doctor, when he met with me after all those tests, said, "wow! You're perfect!" So hey, can't argue with a doctor! I am perfect. And apparently I am a medical mystery, since I don't appear to have sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or restless leg syndrome. So a sleep study was recommended.

Here's what happened.

At 7pm Wednesday night I checked in at the sleep clinic. I was already wearing pajamas, and had brought lots to entertain me, and one of my own pillows.

Arriving for the study with my pillow and my backpack full of entertainment

The technician, Brandy, took me to my room, which felt like a hospital or hotel room. It had its own bathroom attached, a TV, etc.

My view from, where else, the bed

She started hooking me up to all this equipment!  I got 2 electrode things on my legs (one on each), and one on each clavicle. She put three 'belts' around my torso; two monitored my movement (I think) and one was like a control box for all this other stuff. Three things strapped to my chest/waist while I slept. Then she did my head stuff. First she measured my head in all these different ways and marked my face and skull with a red grease pencil. I'm not sure how many electrodes she put in my hair, probably around 6. These were kind of glued in with this weird gel glue stuff. She put one my forehead, one by each eye, one on each side of my jaw, one behind each ear, and one under my chin. Then I got in bed and relaxed and read my book for a couple hours. Around 10pm she came back in and put a monitoring thing on my finger, and a tube in my nostrils (like an oxygen tube) that measures my breathe out. Then she told me to 'get comfortable' and she turned off the light.

In my room they have video and sound on me all the time. So they can hear and see anything I'm doing. They also have a speaker so they can talk to me from the control room.

Before going to bed for the night. No nostril tube or finger monitor on yet.

She came on the speaker and had me do a bunch of things to calibrate the equipment. I had to 'lie still with eyes open'; close my eyes; look up and down 3 times; look left and right 3 times; blink 5 times; grind my teeth; make a snoring noise; flex and wiggle my feet; hold my breath for 10 seconds; hold my breath while flexing my stomach in and out...and I think that was it.

Then they told me to try to go to sleep.  I had no trouble falling asleep. I never do. I slept pretty well, really, but the box on my chest sometimes disturbed me. The thing that hurt the most was the electrodes behind my ears, and the wires going along my legs. I sleep on my side and after lying on those things, my legs and ears started to hurt and I would have to switch sides. But overall I slept pretty well. I woke up around 4:30 and decided I had to use the bathroom, which means I have to ask Brandy to come unhook me a bit. So I just said out loud, "Brandy, I need to use the bathroom" and she came on the speaker and said, "I'll be right in!" and she came in and unhooked me, and I used the bathroom, then she came back in, hooked me back up, and I went back to sleep. I wasn't sure I would be able to go back to sleep, 4:30 is almost when I wake up on a normal weekday, but I did, and then I didn't wake up until 7! What a treat!

They know instantly when you're awake, so when I woke up at 7, they came on the speaker and said, "Laura, let's calibrate again." So I had to do all those same exercises again. Then a new technician, Sam, came in to unhook me. She took off my nostril tube and finger monitor, and all my belts and the leg monitors, but everything else stayed on. She also brought me breakfast!

Some of the stuff attached to my head

For breakfast I had decided to treat myself to Lucky Charms, because hey, how often do I eat Lucky Charms!? Never. I ate my breakfast and read my book, and at 8:30 or so, Sam came back in and told me it was time for my first nap.

Yum, sugar for breakfast!!

So they hooked me up again, blocked the window with this huge foam pad, and then calibrated again, although I didn't have to do the chest or leg things this time.

I took a nap. You probably think, wow, I couldn't just fall asleep on command, especially that soon after waking up. But I was there because I'm too sleepy. I'm pretty good at falling asleep. When my nap was over, Sam came in to wake me up. She asked me, "do you think you slept?" and I said yes, and "do you remember dreaming?" and I said, not really, but I remember dreaming.

Got to choose my lunch and snacks.

Then I had an hour and a half until my next nap, so I did some embroidery, played some games on my phone, read my book, and wow, time flies.

I did five naps throughout the day, each about an hour and a half after the previous one ended. This might sound like an awesome day, just lying around and taking naps, and it was fine, but it did start to get a little tedious. And all I could see out my window, when it wasn't blocked by the foam pad, was a gray day and the parking lot.

I know I slept for 3 of the 5 naps, and the other 2 I might have. It seems weird not to know if I slept or not, but I know wasn't just lying there with my eyes open thinking, 'when is this over??' I had my eyes closed and was thinking about other things, so I might have slept, or dozed, or I might have just been in dozy imagination land. But judging by the times Sam came in to wake me up, I suspect I slept each time. She always asked if I thought I had slept and if I remembered dreaming.

On one of the breaks I strolled down to the lounge. This was the only other place to go than my room, and it wasn't really much of an improvement. Bigger window onto the parking lot. Different chair. And many, many snacks. The snacks were cool. They also brought me lunch between two of the naps, a sandwich, banana, chips, cookie. Pretty standard.

The lounge

My last nap ended at about 5pm. Sam took all the monitors off me. The ones in my hair was weird, she gathered up the wires in like a ponytail and tugged straight up, and they just slid right off. Then I could go home! There was a shower in my room if I wanted to use it, but I live super close to the clinic so I just pulled my hood up over my weird hair and drove home.

This was like, 18 hours in. I was feeling pretty gross.

My hair had all this gunky gel glue in it, and lots of gauze. It was sticking up in all directions. My face had red grease pencil marks on it. My body just felt gross from lying in bed ALL DAY and not showering all day. I took a shower right when I got home, and then I took a walk, even though it was cold and gray and rainy out, because I just desperately needed some fresh air and exercise.

So my doctor will look at my test results and let me know what he thinks in the next week or so. I'm not really expecting that he'll be able to say, "oh, look! You have this thing, and here's how you cure it!" but maybe he'll have some insight into what I can do differently to be less sleepy in the afternoons.