Here are some pics from the sleep study place. (www.alphasleep.com if
anyone cares) I arrived at the place at 9:00 or so for a 9:30
appointment. This was in the waiting room. Is this supposed to be a
warning? I had to fill out some
forms and then they put about 20 wires and electrodes on me and in my
hair with some conductive gel. In the morning i had a whole bunch of
nasty snarls because of it. “It’ll come out with shampoo”, they said.
Yeah right. (by the way, this is my first self-pic with my freshly-waxed
eyebrows) Here is the mess of wires
after I woke up: As for the experience
itself? My doctor gave me some Lunesta to sleep, but i didn’t take it,
preferring my own S4 “sleep enabler”. The attendant (when i asked, he
said his name was Jeff) said that we’d go to the sleeping pills if i
didnt sleep within an hour. It took him about 20-30 minutes to get all
the wires attached, then i had to carefully get into bed, trying not to
entangle myself in the wires. fitted me with a mask, turning it on to
get the feel of it. The pressure at first seems really high, like if you
were to stick your head out the window of a car going 30 MPH or so. The
effect was striking and very quick. I think the wind has oxygen added,
and within seconds my eyes were watering and VERY light sensitive. I
could hardly keep them open, and hoped this meant i would fall asleep
quickly. It might have happened that way, but I tossed and turned for
what seemed like an hour or so, and so at one point I said aloud “can
you hear me?” and momentarily Jeff came back in. (they’d attached a
microphone to my throat to record my snores) I said that maybe the pills
would be needed, but he said that indeed I’d been asleep, it was now
about 1:00 AM. A little while later, he came back in and put the mask on
me. During the initial setup, he tested a nose-only mask but since i
breathe through my mouth, I had to use the whole-face version. He
strapped it on me, and told me to lay on my back. I tossed and turned
again, at some point i turned on my side. Jeff came in and asked me to
lay on my back.. more time passed, eventually i decided the 4-5 level of
pain in my lowerback was never going to let me sleep, and so i turned on
my side again. At one point I touched my mask and i think i moved
something, never really knew for sure, but the last couple hours of
tossig and turning i must have been getting used to the air pressure
because it didnt seem as much. The one thing that bugged me the most was
that my nose kept getting itchy because of the air flow. My experience
of the evening was that I didn’t sleep hardly at all, it seems like i
tossed and turned all night. There were a couple of crucial elements
missing: - my wife: I almost never sleep alone except when I am out of
town on business - sound: while there was some white noise provided by
the CPAP machine, what I was missing was some tunes or news. I usually
go to sleep with the radio playing either BBC World News or Echoes
(www.echoes.org), depending on what time i go to bed. Just as often, it
starts with Echoes and transitions to BBC at 1:00 AM. Yes, that’s on a
school night that I’m up that late. I guess I have to admit that there
was one aspect of this experience that proves to me that I
slept: I had a brief dream fragment recollection in which I went out to
the parking lot of the place I was and Michelle was there. I still had
beaucoup wires attached to me, and it was like i was taking a break even
though it was daylight. They woke me up a little after 5:00, i got to
see the sun rising, and drove home. They asked me some questions to see
if i was fit for driving (“do you feel ok to drive?” “I think so, but i
haven’t stood up yet” “what is your address?” “blah blah blah.. are you
asking just to see if i am coherent enough to say that?” “yes”) I drove
home to my wife, who’d been dozing on the couch in front of tv shows i
don’t usually care about, i took a shower, pulled out big chunks of hair
when the gel didn’t exactly dissolve, and slept until about 10:30. Given
that this little excursion was prompted by observations from people
other than me, i wasn’t particularly impressed. Sure I snore, I’ve
snored for as long as i can remember, but I don’t necessarily appreciate
the scare tactics in the introductory thing:
Your physician has ordered a sleep study to determine if you have any
type of sleeping disorder. It is a medically necessary test, and your
doctor’s office is waiting for us to forward the results of this test to
his/her office. Postponing or canceling your sleep study can have
serious consequences on your health. Untreated sleep apnea can increase
the risks of several health concerns including cardiac complications,
weight gain, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, impotence and
lack of energy.
One of the questions on the exit survey asked if I would use this
thing if prescribed by doctor. I said that not being able to sleep on my
side would be a deal breaker.
