(no subject)

[hollyking]

Well I had my sleep study last night. Some folks were interested in hearing about my experience so here’s an attempt to write them up for you. Before I get started I suggest everyone look at the comment from neuro42. He posted about his experiences so you have some more information for comparison.

I arrived at 8pm and was shown to a study room. The tech told me my tech would be with me soon but I should change into my sleeping clothes and wait for him to arrive. After I changed I went ahead and filled out the survey. There was one for before the study and one for the morning. After finishing the study I put Hudson Hawk (1991) in the DVD player and settled down to watch. Thanks for the choices jw1776.

I hadn’t even gotten through the opening credits when Steve, my technician for the night, walked in and said they had put me in the wrong room. So it was a quick grab for everything and off down the hall to a smaller room with windows. Steve ran off to prepare and I restarted the movie.

When Steve returned it was time to hook me up to all the leads and sensors. So I sat in a chair while we chatted and I watched the movie. One of the great things about Hudson Hawk is I’ve seen the movie so many times I didn’t miss anything while being wired. I found out that contrary to the instructions which said I would go to sleep and wake up at my normal times I was to sleep at 10pm and wake up at 6am.

After we finished attaching the sensors I sat up on the bed and watched the rest of the movie. I also spent some time exchanging phone calls with hollyqueen and loba and quite a few text messages too. Before I knew it the movie was wrapping up and it was about 9:40pm. Steve came back and asked if I was ready to sleep. We decided to wait 10 minutes so I could finish the movie, I had to see if the Hawk escaped again.

About 9:50 Steve came back and had me lie down in the bed. He made final adjustments to the leads and added some to my legs and arms. There were probably 20 leads, plus two straps around my torso. It wasn’t really uncomfortable. Oh, there was also a plastic thing in my nostrils and mouth.

As we chatted I asked about sleeping positions because I normally slept on my side. He said I could sleep in any position I wanted and if he needed something special he would ask me to move. I also mentioned sleeping with a fan running normally which was a good idea because he went and brought in a white noise machine for the night. After the last adjustments were done Steve left and called me over the intercom from the control room. There were a series of calibrations that involved me closing my eyes, opening my eyes, looking around the room, moving my feet, arms, coughing, snoring and holding my breath. After that it was lights out.

I was in a comfortable position so I curled up with Klaus and started to drift off to sleep. After a bit I realized that while I was relaxed I wasn’t really sleeping so I turned on my side. Then I was out like a light in seconds. I didn’t have a sleepless night and it was about normal for me.

I remember rolling over many times to change from one side to the other. Once my hand became tangled in the leads and I had to wake up enough to get loose without ripping out any wires. A couple of times Steve came in to reattach a lead or adjust the nosepiece. Without a clock or any way to really tell if time was passing I don’t know how long I was awake after being woken up. I don’t think it was a huge amount but it certainly was more than a few minutes.

At 6am Steve came in and woke me up. He had me lay on my back again and then left the room. From the control room we ran through the calibration exercises again. Then he returned for the worst part of the entire experience. I wasn’t really awake but I sure woke up fast when he started ripping off the leads. I lost a lot of hair and probably skin in the process.

There was a shower there in the room but it was 6am and I don’t normally wake until 7am so I headed home to shower and see my love for a bit before work. I washed a lot but there is still the remains of adhesive on my arms and I found a bit of glue in my hair after I was at work. I guess that means I’ll just have to scrub again once I get home.

My advice to anyone who is going through this is:

1. Relax. It’s not painful and the techs made sure I was comfortable throughout the entire process.

2. Bring a pillow or stuffed animal to help you relax. Klaus was a big help even though he was too excited about sleeping in a new place with his daddy.

3. Really wash. The hotter the water the easier the glue comes out.

Questions?