Good times, my friends. Good times.

I left the Halloween candy for the trick-or-treaters in the very capable hands of the bearded eye-roller, and headed off to the sleep study center at 7pm. As an aside, I asked BER to please take any leftover Halloween candy with him to work the next day so I'd keep my grubby paws out of it, and was disappointed pleased to find out that he did indeed do as I'd requested. Meh- no chocolate in the house.

Anyhoo- I was a little uncomfortable with the set up. There were four patients and two technologists. I was the only woman in the center. That kind of creeped me out. Of course, it was Halloween, and we're supposed to be creeped out, eh?

I was asked to wash my hair the day of the procedure and not use ANY product or conditioner. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? No product? Me? Even worse, I had to take off my makeup and be seen in public (well, just the sleep-study center public) bare-faced. So, there I was in all my naturalness ready to be hooked up to what seemed like a million wires.

The technologist (a very yacky fellow, I might note- and we ALL know how I feel about yacky people) asked me to take my seroquil before hooking me up. Normally, the seroquil takes about 45 minutes to kick in, and I assumed I'd be tucked in bed by the time it knocked me out.

Not so much.

It took him over an hour to hook me up, so by the time he was done I was pretty much a zombie (again, PERFECT for Halloween!) I have a picture of it, but really- I do have my limits as to what I'll show here on my blog. If you want to see, email me at risiblegirl at gmail dot com and I'll send it to you (depending on who you are. STEW? Forget it! ha ha). I look pretty bad between all the stuff on my face and the totally spaced out look on my face. Seriously BAD.

Basically, I had a bunch of wires glued to my head,


wires taped to my face (with adhesive- and we all know what adhesive does to me), a heart monitor, leg monitors (glad I shaved my legs right before leaving the house!) a band around my waist, a band under my arm pits, and some weird little thing up my nose and in my mouth. I looked a little like Hitler with the tape holding that thing in place.

There were two things against me getting good sleep. I wasn't allowed a clock and I wasn't allowed to sleep on my stomach. I am a serial clock-watcher and NEED to know what time it is every minute of the day. BER will attest to the fact that I'm quite OCD about my clock watching. There must be a clock in every room of the house and it must be accurate.

Yup- I'm a freak.

Now, the only way they were going to catch me doing my nightly (several times a night, according to BER ) ritual of pretending to watch TV was if I was on my stomach. They'll just have to trust the report he completed for the sleep study- because I'm sure it didn't happen since I was on my back. Oh, I've started something new according to BER. I now look like I'm washing my face in my sleep. With all this touching of my face during the night- it's a wonder I haven't developed acne.

I had LOTS of weird dreams that night, in fact- more than I usually have. When the tech woke me up the next morning he asked if I'd had any dreams and was surprised when I told him how many and could tell him in vivid detail what they were. He said that I am apparently someone who dreams outside of REM because I wasn't dreaming at all during REM. I looked this up, and that's not particularly unusual- but it does explain why I act out in my dreams. REM basically paralyzes you, so unless you have a REM disorder- you can't sleep-walk, sleep-talk, (or sleep-watch TV!) while you're in REM. He said that he couldn't share anything with me about the study except that I needed to invest in a mouth guard ASAP, and I don't have sleep apnea. He said that I was one of the worst teeth-grinders he's ever seen.

I was pretty excited to go home the next morning, but the tech said that this might not happen. He said that he was going to talk to one of the doctors to see if I needed to stay for the day study. He told me that he was pretty sure they'd say yes.

He was right.

At least I was able to get out of my sheep jammies (thanks sis for the sheep jammies- they were a big hit with the technologist, laughing about the idea that I could just count the sheep on my jammies instead of in my head.)

Here's a pic in the morning- hair askew, no makeup and no Hitler mustache anymore:


What you can't see in the pic is the patches of rash from the adhesive tape. I still have big circles on my chest from the heart monitors, circles on my legs from the leg monitors and a rash under my chin and the sides of my face. Too bad Halloween is over- I have the leper look without even trying.

For the day study, they have you lay down every two hours for 20 minutes to see if you fall asleep, for a total of five studies. I was surprised to find that I fell asleep (heavy sleep) during each of those 'naps'. They come in and wake you up after the 20 minutes and you spend the next 1:40 doing whatever.

I still have the 'script' they use to callibrate the monitors before each nap.

Without moving your head, look to the left
Now look to the right
Look to the left
annnnnnnnd look to the right
Now look up
Look down
Look up
Look down
Now look straight ahead and blink five times
Grind your teeth
Relax
Grind your teeth
Relax
Grind your teeth
Relax
Now close your eyes and relax. I'll see you when we're done.

I looked up day studies on the Internet and from what I've read, it looks like they're checking for Narcolepsy. Some of the pieces fit- but I've never gone to sleep during the middle of a conversation (that I'm aware of, anyway), nor have I gone to sleep while being active. Of course there's a lot of things I'm doing in my sleep since the head bonking incident that I've never done before. Maybe bonking my head caused some sort of weird sleep disorder. I guess I'll find out in two weeks.

So, there you have it. How I spent my Halloween. I must say, it was the BEST costume I've ever had.