Last night I didn’t get to sleep in my own bed.  I did a sleep study.  A person with sleep issues, whatever they might be, spends the night in a lab hooked up to lots of things and in a few weeks finds out why they have the issues.  Since no one adequately prepared me for the sleep test, I have decided to tell you, dear reader, o blogosphere what it is really like.

I went into a room that had no windows and a double bed.  I changed into my pajamas and put two electrode wires down each of my pant legs.  Then the technician returned and she started to hook me up.  There were four electrodes on my head including the nasty gel stuff which was so delightful to get out of my hair, one behind each ear, one on each side of my jaw to detect grinding, one under my left eye, one above my right eye, one in the center of my forehead, and two on my clavicle.  In case it wasn’t clear, the reason that I look like I was punched in the eye is from the scrubbing and surgical tape put below my left eye.  That did not feel good to take off this morning.  In case that wasn’t enough, then I had a nasal cannula taped to my cheeks to measure the output of air from my nose.

Oh, but there’s more.  Then I had a strap around underneath my armpits and one around my waist to detect breathing.  I also had a pulse reader on my ring finger on my right hand.  It took almost an hour to hook up all of these things to the right gadgets and then the technician informed me, go to sleep now.  So much for the reading before bed that was described in the brochure.

Needless to say it was not easy to fall asleep with all of this stuff strapped to me.  The room was really hot and stuffy and that made it more difficult to sleep.

The good news is that the test is over.  There wasn’t any information that the technician was readily able to share except that I didn’t snore all night.  I will know in two weeks what the verdict is.  I’ll keep you posted.  And if you ever have to have a sleep study, good luck!

So if you see me and my eye looks puffy and red, I did not get punched in the eye.