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Sleep study - so sticky.
Jan. 18th, 2021 01:34 pmSo. I had a sleep study to check me for sleep apnea.
I don't think I have this, but in the on-going saga of tests to check out my heart murmur, we've checked everything else, so we might as well check this. Also, it is a slight bit of "oh, obesity, it must be apnea", but not too bad.
(I can't see myself wearing a CPAP because they look like an alien trying to plant an embryo down the throat and I have claustrophobia, but hey.) (Also, I have been sleeping propped up on some pillows for the last 30 years, so if it ain't broke, etc etc.)
The person who looked after me was very kind and competent. The bed was comfy, and I could have as many pillows as I liked. The room was private, and although there were other sleepers there, we never saw each other. Everything was clean and fresh. It was a little claustrophobic because the door was closed and there was no window, but I had taken my fancy air purifier with UV zapper, so the air circulating helped me ignore the closed in aspect of the room.
I had at least six electrodes in my hair on my scalp, a couple on my chin, some on my chest, some on my legs. I had a band around my chest, and a band around my tummy. I had nose things in my nose (normally used to give oxygen, this time used to measure my breaths). I had a sensor taped to a forefinger. And all of these things were tethered individually to monitors beside the bed.
I fell asleep just fine, and slept my first light sleep out just fine. Then I usually wake up just enough to rearrange myself. I could not because of the tethers. I kept getting pulled up in one direction, and then in the other I was ending up on top of all the cords and junction boxes. Also, the pillows were copious - but wrong - so it took me a while to get the pillows into an acceptable configuration. I tend to grind my head into the pillow, so during all this semi-wakefulness the technician had to keep coming in to regum down the electrodes on my scalp. I think I managed to also yank something out in one of my flailing attempts to find a piece of bed not already occupied by medical science.
Eventually I fell asleep again, and had a deeper sleep. And she let me sleep as long as possible - but they kick everybody out by 7:00 am, so I suspect I was coming up out of the very deep dream sleep, but hadn't quite surfaced naturally.
She removed all the bits, and I got dressed and left. My hair was full of seriously sticky and tangled residue, which I couldn't get a comb through. It became crunchy (ew). This mattered because the testing facility is out of town for me, and Mom and I went for breakfast before we went home.
Once I got home and had a proper shower, it did just disolve out of my hair with just warm water - but it sure was gross-tesque.
I was surprised how disturbing I found being tethered during sleep. It was almost clautrophobia. It was definitely aggravating.
However, last night I slept in my own bed, with my own pillows, with my ungummed hair, and my cats rompy-stomping back and forth through the open door, so I slept very well.
I don't think I have this, but in the on-going saga of tests to check out my heart murmur, we've checked everything else, so we might as well check this. Also, it is a slight bit of "oh, obesity, it must be apnea", but not too bad.
(I can't see myself wearing a CPAP because they look like an alien trying to plant an embryo down the throat and I have claustrophobia, but hey.) (Also, I have been sleeping propped up on some pillows for the last 30 years, so if it ain't broke, etc etc.)
The person who looked after me was very kind and competent. The bed was comfy, and I could have as many pillows as I liked. The room was private, and although there were other sleepers there, we never saw each other. Everything was clean and fresh. It was a little claustrophobic because the door was closed and there was no window, but I had taken my fancy air purifier with UV zapper, so the air circulating helped me ignore the closed in aspect of the room.
I had at least six electrodes in my hair on my scalp, a couple on my chin, some on my chest, some on my legs. I had a band around my chest, and a band around my tummy. I had nose things in my nose (normally used to give oxygen, this time used to measure my breaths). I had a sensor taped to a forefinger. And all of these things were tethered individually to monitors beside the bed.
I fell asleep just fine, and slept my first light sleep out just fine. Then I usually wake up just enough to rearrange myself. I could not because of the tethers. I kept getting pulled up in one direction, and then in the other I was ending up on top of all the cords and junction boxes. Also, the pillows were copious - but wrong - so it took me a while to get the pillows into an acceptable configuration. I tend to grind my head into the pillow, so during all this semi-wakefulness the technician had to keep coming in to regum down the electrodes on my scalp. I think I managed to also yank something out in one of my flailing attempts to find a piece of bed not already occupied by medical science.
Eventually I fell asleep again, and had a deeper sleep. And she let me sleep as long as possible - but they kick everybody out by 7:00 am, so I suspect I was coming up out of the very deep dream sleep, but hadn't quite surfaced naturally.
She removed all the bits, and I got dressed and left. My hair was full of seriously sticky and tangled residue, which I couldn't get a comb through. It became crunchy (ew). This mattered because the testing facility is out of town for me, and Mom and I went for breakfast before we went home.
Once I got home and had a proper shower, it did just disolve out of my hair with just warm water - but it sure was gross-tesque.
I was surprised how disturbing I found being tethered during sleep. It was almost clautrophobia. It was definitely aggravating.
However, last night I slept in my own bed, with my own pillows, with my ungummed hair, and my cats rompy-stomping back and forth through the open door, so I slept very well.
