Losing a bit of November
Two more sleep study stories

Sleep study

Millenium poolWell, the sleep study was both better and worse than I expected.  The sleep techs were really nice.  While they were putting all the wires on me, I had a wonderful, musical-geek conversation with one of them.   He was a composition student at ECU, but then he switched to studying the brain.  We discussed Stravinsky, rhythms, Prokofiev, Mozart, jazz, harmonies, etc.  It made a long process go by quicker.  The sleep center is in the top of a hotel so I got there early to swim laps in the indoor pool and sit in the hot tub (at night, the pool room is not nearly as light as it is in this photo).  Swimming usually helps me sleep well, and I knew that I would need all the help I could get.  The rooms are good-sized hotel rooms so it doesn't seem very clinical... until they start hooking you up to the machines.  

What I realized, last night, is that sleeping is a nice peaceful time for me.  Sleeping at the center was more like work.  Turn on to your back, turn on to your side, they need to make sure the wires are plugged in, they need to replace one of the wires, etc.  Using the bathroom while trailing lots of wires around is tricky. I'm not used to having someone else arranging my sleep.  I was surprised to find that I was out of sorts for a good bit of the day because I felt like I lost the time to myself while I was sleeping.  I also was exhausted, had a bad tension headache, and was nauseous for a lot of today so younger son had a peaceful, quiet day.  I perked up in time to go to choir this evening.

I almost forgot to mention that, near the end of the study, I started having lots of anxiety dreams. In one of them, a nurse kept asking me, during a very long examination, for the order of the sons in one of the opening songs for "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." In my dream, I was really frustrated because I couldn't remember. After they took the wires off in the morning, I took a shower to get the glue out of my hair.  While soaking my hair, one of the first things I did was mentally review the lyrics: "Reuben was the eldest of the children of Israel/With Simeon and Levi the next in line..."

I went into the evening, yesterday, with lots of energy, and I was so glad to go home in the morning. On the way, I drove west on the highway toward a beautiful full moon listening to the Indigo Girls singing and wathcing the sun rising over Durham in my rearview mirror.   

  • While You Were Sleeping:  Article about the sleep center (although, as I was told, they don't normally store lots of soda there.  Someone working there just had bought a bunch to bring home).  

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