Sleep, glorious sleep!

Tuesday night, I reported to the NY Eye and Ear Hospital for a sleep study. I was referred by my ENT and Allergist - I've had chronic dry scratchy throat and clogged ears for many months, and also woken up every now and then during the night feeling my throat kind of clogged also. Indications are that I may have apnea or something, so I was eager to do the study.

The technician showed me to my room - a nice big comfortable looking bed with my own tv and small bathroom. Before she hooked me up to the EEG and such, she gave me a 4-page questionnaire to fill out. Now, anytime something major is going on in my life, I think about it with more attention to detail than I normally would. So I'd already been focusing on my sleep habits. Do I really feel well-rested when I rise in the morning? Is my regular napping a sign of a healthy response to the normal cycles of energy and sleepiness throughout the day, or a sign of a pathology?

So the questionnaire added to my suspicions about what is going on, but in a way that was frustrating. Most questions just allowed for a yes or no answer, and I would have liked to give a more nuanced response. Yes, I get sleepy during the day, but my corporate job requires me to rise in the morning earlier than I would like to - that's why I tire by late morning or early afternoon. However, the technician had warned me about the questionnaire, telling me more than once to fill it out as best as I could. So I didn't stress over it.

Then she went to work on me. When she was done, I felt like I had wires and tubes covering my entire head. There was even a tube that sort of went into my nostrils. How was I supposed to breathe through my nose with that crap in there? The nice thing was that she left traces of her perfume on the tubes and other pieces of tape, so for the first couple of hours I smelled that, which was nice. There were also bands around my chest and abdomen and a tube taped to my index finger to monitor my breathing and movement. She told me to lie back, got me all situated on my pillows, covered me with a sheet and blanket, and left me to my task: to try to sleep.

I never sleep well the first night I'm in a strange place, even without tubes and wires on me, making me itch and preventing me from moving easily. So the answer is no, I didn't sleep well, but I slept some, hopefully enough for them to make a good assessment of what is going on while I sleep.

I cleaned some of the gunk out of my head when it was over, and walked through the still-dark streets of Manhattan back to the subway. In a few weeks I will see my ENT and we'll go over the results, and decide what the next step is.

This being the weekend, I had a glorious sleep last night, only getting up when I felt like it. I may not need a nap today, which shows that when I don't have to get up at an unreasonable hour to work for the Man, I sleep adequately. But if I did need a nap, I would have no problem with that. Occasionally, you read about studies that show that a huge percentage of the adult population is sleep-deprived, even people you would like to be well-rested like doctors and airline pilots. And many people get through the day only through the wonders of caffeinated beverages and other stimulants.

Well, I stay away from caffeine for the most part. And when I feel tired, I give in to it as is convenient, and I sleep. And when I get up after a 10-minute nap, I feel more alert. Yes, I have no doubt that I may have a sleeping disorder, and I look forward to getting treatment for that so my throat and ears will hopefully feel better. But whatever happens, I reserve the right to sleep anywhere and at anytime I feel necessary. It's what I've always done, and noone has yet convinced me that is anything other than a very healthy habit.