Sleep Study Night One

I arrived at the sleep institute at nine pm, right when I was supposed to. I like to be prompt.

The reception area looked pretty much like any other medical office reception area that I've been in. I was met at the door by a young lady who led me back to my room. I was told by my doctor that I could expect something like a small hotel room, which is exactly what I found. A queen-size bed, two end tables, a lamp, a television with Direct TV and a ¾ bath. And, of course, the machines. I will say this... the machines were much smaller than I expected them to be. There was basically one small unit that would spend the night under my pillow, and a larger unit stuffed discretely under one of the end tables.

My sleep tech came in to hook me up. I feel bad that I can't remember his name, and frankly forgot it soon after he told it to me.

As I watched “The Office” on TV, he hooked up two electrodes to each shin, two on my upper chest, one behind each ear, one on either side of my forehead, two on top of my head and then two straps around my chest to hold it all together, with four cables coming from these. I think.

At ten o'clock, feeling a little like a child being tucked in (especially since I was wearing Superman jammies), my tech put me to bed, stuffing the sensor unit under the other pillow. He told me that if I needed anything, I should just speak out – they had an intercom in my room. After he turned the light off and left, he came back on the intercom to run me through a series of simple motions to make sure that the sensors were reading right. Lights out: 10:15 pm.

Now let me tell you a few things... first off, I don't know how they expect to get any insight into your normal sleep patterns in this environment. I normally sleep with my cat – there was no cat. I normally sleep nude – they required me to wear jammies (for their comfort, I think... they were watching me all night on night vision). It was an unfamiliar bed. There was no light, even in the morning once the lights went off. And, of course, the electrodes. I will say that the electrodes were not as uncomfortable as you might think. And a friend of mine years ago helped me teach myself to pretty much ignore any physical discomfort so that I can always get SOME sleep, regardless of where I am. For years, as a teenager, to teach myself this, I slept on a wooden plank with no pillow. As a result, even if I wind up crashing on the floor, I can get at least a little sleep and keep functioning.

My form of insomnia is typically what they call “frequent wakefulness”, which means that I rarely have trouble FALLING asleep, but always have trouble STAYING asleep. So I fell out pretty quickly. I woke up several times during the night (although I would not know how many until the next day), but always managed to get back to sleep after a change of position, or a drink of water, or whatever. Finally, started to drift in and out of sleep with a need to urinate. Had I been at home, I probably would have just gotten up the second or third time that I drifted into consciousness. But here I encountered a problem. I had, as I mentioned, forgotten the young man's name, and needed him to disconnect me so that I could go. I didn't just want to yell “HEY!” at the intercom, so I continued drifting in and out of sleep, annoyed at myself. I knew that they knew that I was awake, and wished that they would just ask if anything was wrong. Finally I cleared my throat, and said “Good morning?” Bless his heart, he came on and asked if everything was okay. I told him that I had to go to the bathroom, and he came in and disconnected the little machine from the big machine. So I carried the little machine into the bathroom with my eight hundred or so wires leading from it, and tried to do what I was there to do while holding this machine in my left hand and struggling not to pee on any of the wires.

I went back to bed and asked the tech what time it was as he hooked me back up. He said "About 3:15." I thanked him for his help, and he left.

I lay there.

And lay there.

And lay there.

Completely and totally unable to go back to sleep.

Finally, at about five fifteen, he came in and told me that I hadn't slept since he was last in there (like I hadn't realized). I got up, showered the electrode crap out of my hair and went home.

When it's all said and done, I wound up getting about four hours and fifteen minutes of sleep, while it is recommended that adults get 7 to 8 hours. It took me 24 minutes to get to sleep, which she said was pretty good, and 85 minutes to get into REM sleep, which was about average. Here's where it starts getting weird for me.

Stage 1 sleep is defined as presleep. The average adult spends 5% of their sleep time here. I spent 23.6%.

Stage 2 sleep is "full" sleep. This is where most people spend most of their time, and I hit this target very close. The average is 55%, and I was there for 60.5%.

Stage 3/4 sleep is, according to a source that I found, where you really get deep rest and rejuvenation. Most adults spend about 20% of their sleep time here. I spent none. 0.0%.

A sleep arousal is defined as a shift from deep to light sleep or to wakefulness. I can't find any information on what an average number of arousals per night is, but I had 113, which seems like a lot. Could explain why I feel like I'm always waking up.

Tomorrow I'll post my second night with the Cpap mask.

You are not alone.

Randal