my (non) Sleep Study...

Sunday night I had to go for a "Sleep Study" at a local sleep clinic.

I have had many many nights of poor or no sleep over many years, and just assumed that it was typical and that it happened to everyone. Then I had several really bad weeks in a row and talked to my doctor and she referred me to this sleep clinic.

I had my initial consultation with them a few weeks ago and they set the dates for my studies -- I have to go twice -- once April 30th for the initial study and then if I have sleep apnea (which my doc and the sleep clinic doc both reckon I do have) the second study is to calibrate the CPAP machine (cpap stands for continuous positive air pressure -- basically sleep apnea means your air tube is closing as you sleep and you stop breathing! Your body is continually waking itself up to continue breathing! The cpap machine is a mask connected to an oxygen tank which has air with a higher pressure than just regular room air, and when your airtube begins to close, it issues puffs of air to keep it open and clear so that you don't wake up).

So I went for the study this past Sunday evening. I was nervous because I knew that I don't sleep well under pressure and especially not when I can't toss and turn and get comfortable.

I was hooked up to 18 wires and 3 bands around my torso and had tubing in my nose (not all the way up there, mind you, but in) with a little segment that went just outside my mouth. Needless to say, it was NOT comfortable. Very long whingy story short -- I felt like a marionette puppet when she told me I was finally all hooked up and could get up out of the chair and get into the bed.

The technician was super nice and very patient.

I wasn't allowed to sleep on my stomach during the study -- which when she told me that as I was being hooked up, I didn't think much of it -- I know that I do sleep on my stomach, but thought that I mainly sleep on either my left side or my right side.

Boy was I wrong.

Apparently what I do (now after having been through a night's sleep where I am aware of how/when I sleep) -- I fall asleep on my stomach with my arms up under my pillow, and with my big fluffy duvet curled up around my ears and I look like a giant burrito.

Sooo... I didn't sleep much. And the real kicker was that I was sooooo tired!! While she was placing all these electrodes in my hair (yuck -- she had to put this paste that conducts things so that these wires will read what is happening in my brain!) I was yawning away and feeling very very sleepy and comfortable.

So after lights were out and we tested all the electrodes, I closed my eyes and expected to fall right asleep.

Nope.

Not even a little bit.

So hours later, after trying to roll over onto both sides, and having pulled out at least 1 electrode connection (which brings the nice technician in with her flashlight to reconnect) -- and with her adjusting my breathing tubes -- which involves said flashlight to be shined in my face so she can see what she's doing... I call out to her and she comes to fix the tubes/wires which feel like they are choking me around my neck. At this point I confess my anxiousness of not falling asleep and ask if she can give me a tablet or something. Unfortunately she can't, so I had brought some Nyquil (cough syrup that helps you sleep) and asked if I could take that. She had to check with the other tech but came back and said it was okay. So I took it and that's when I slept for what felt like only an hour or so.

So as she was unhooking me, she's trying to comfort me by saying she thinks she got enough recorded for the doctor to analyze. I'm thinking "I sure hope you did because I don't want to do this again!!" and also thinking "at least they got a record of what a REALLY bad night of sleep looks like for me!!"...

So now I wait, and call the doc to ask for a sleep aid for the next one (which will be on May 14th), because the nice techie told me that most folks do sleep for the first sleep study, but struggle with sleeping the second time because of having to get used to the machine -- so I don't have a snowball's chance of sleeping that time... which means they can't calibrate how much/how little air to set the cpap to...

*sigh*

Posted by kristen at May 2, 2006 2:11 PM