Sleep Test

No, that’s not a bomb that needs to be defused by figuring out which color wire to cut.

Oh, you didn’t think that at all? I must be watching too many police procedural shows. 😅

It’s actually part of a sleep test.

You see, for months now, on most days, even though I have 8 hours of sleep or even more, I still feel tired and sleepy the next day.

I read that this could be a symptom for sleep apnoea, so one day while I was at the doctor’s for a migraine, I asked her about it. She suggested a sleep test to check. She wrote a letter so I could check with my insurance if I could proceed, and when they approved it, the clinic booked the test for me.

The schedule was for last night. At around 7:30 pm, someone came by to deliver the apparatus.

Then at around 9 pm, someone came by to set it up. I was so relieved when it turned out to be a woman. I don’t know why I assumed it would be a guy just because the one who first called me was one. It would have been incredibly awkward and scary if it had been a guy. It’s really annoying that this is still unfortunately a problem in 2021.

She took around an hour to tape and glue all the things on my face, head, chest, stomach, and legs. She was very nice, though, and for some reason her eyes reminded me of a former colleague.

She then tested that everything was working by checking that a device was recording properly. One of the nose things wasn’t, so she had to remove and replace it with a new piece.

After that, she said: “Try to get some sleep!” before leaving.

Turns out it is not an easy feat to fall asleep with a bunch of alien stuff wrapped around your body. I put on a silk eye mask and listened to a relaxing YouTube video and eventually did drift off after a lot of tossing and turning and worrying that I was dislodging some of the wires in the process.

I woke up several times during the night, made sure that the important wires – the ones in my nostrils and the pulse oxymeter on my hand – were intact, then went back to sleep.

Needless to say, I didn’t feel well rested at all the next day.

I then had to remove everything strapped to my body and put it back in a bag which was picked up by someone.

There were bits of glue – like blue tack or play doh – on my face and hair, but the lady from last night had told me that they would dissolve with warm water, so I just took a warm shower and made sure to scrub them to oblivion.

So let’s see what the results will be! Will update!