Sleep Study Fail

Last night was my sleep study, and I feel like I failed.

I hardly slept at all last night, to the point that I couldn't go to work today. (I have a note from the sleep technician.) I'm worried that they didn't get the information they need.

Although I'm worried about the results (or lack of), the experience itself wasn't that bad.


This was the room I stayed in. It's more like a nice motel room than a hospital room. There's a regular full bed, not a hospital bed.


There was a flat screen television on the wall. There's a camera above it that taped me all night.

I got there around 9 p.m. After I got settled in, the sleep tech started to hook me up to everything. She taped some of the wires to my nightgown. There were a few electrodes on my chest. I was surprised by the number that went on my face.

The tech measured my skull and used a wax pencil to mark spots on my scalp.

Then they put one of those oxygen things in my nostrils to measure my breathing. There was something else that hooked to it to measure breathing through my mouth. I think I lost it during the night.

When all was done, I looked like this.


Of course, I brought my knitting. With all the berets I've made for other people, I decided it was time to make one for myself. I'm making another One Day Beret with a skein of Robincat's handspun that I bought at Gauge awhile back. The color is "Raspberry Beret," which seems appropriate.


Here's where I was in my knitting before bed, next to the box with all my wires in it.

I called Jules, then it was time for bed. It took me some time to get comfortable. I managed to pull out two of the sensors on my legs before I even fell asleep.

Eventually I fell asleep.

Then I woke up.

There was a crick in my lower back. I tried to stretch, but it was hard to move. I had to be untangled. I went to the bathroom.

You know when you're having trouble sleeping, and you know you must have slept at some point, but it doesn't seem like you did? All night was like that.

At some point the sleep tech said she should I have encouraged me more to take the sleeping pill the doctor had authorized. Of course, it was too late by then.

I know I move around a lot while I'm asleep, but I also need to move around a lot before I go to sleep to get comfortable. But every time I moved my head, I'd get tangled up in wires.

Finally, I was awake but resting when the sleep tech said she was going to "put me out of my misery" and end the study. It was 5:30 a.m.

The tech I said I could go home and really crash. Except I had work. That's when I decided to get a note.

As the tech took all the electrodes out of my hair, I asked her about how you become a sleep tech. Apparently it takes a health care background. She said she checks on the patients every half hour and documents what they're doing. The hardest part is interpreting the information. Sometimes it's clear cut, other times people are weird. (I bet I'm one of the weird people.)

When all the electrodes were out of my hair, I felt around. For a minute, I thought she'd missed some, but it turns out there was just so much goop for each electrode. I had to wash, rinse and repeat three times, and I think I still missed some.

I asked before I left if they got enough information. She said the recorded "some events", but she couldn't give me details. She couldn't even tell me how long I slept. There was a questionnaire where I had to guess how long I thought I slept, how often I woke up, etc.

I told her that I felt like I "failed" the test. The tech said I didn't.

I'll find out more on my follow up appointment Feb. 10.