sleeping (not so) beauty

This past weekend I attended a sleep clinic to try and diagnose my fatigue issues. I stayed overnight on Friday and through most of the following day for a second study, a daytime nap study. The whole experience wasn't terribly weird, just a little strange.

Your room is essentially a cheap hotel room with equipment in it and one of those horrible hospital bathrooms with a loud-flushing toilet. Thankfully I had cable access and was introduced to the Friday night must-see "The Cut" with Tommy Hilfiger - a cheap knock-off of Bravo's "Project Runway."

You get hooked up to all these electrodes - on your body, on your head, on your face. The night tech had to dig through my hair in an attempt to glue aforementioned electrodes to my scalp. Let me just say - the combo of wires and fuzzy, matted hair - I looked hot after he finished.

You have all these wires dangling, not plugged into anything, and you're let alone to watch tv or read, whatever you want. Once you're feeling sleepy, you buzz the tech. He comes in, hooks you up to a data port (you're stuck there now), and turns out the lights. Once back in a little observation room, he speakerphones in and walks you through a series of calibrations to make sure all the monitors are working correctly. Then he tells you "Ok, now you can sleep. Turn into whatever position you'd like." You're laying there in the dark trying to relax, then you hear the zoom of the infrared camera.

Now you're wide awake, repeating to yourself "I've got to get to sleep. I must get to sleep. I have to get to sleep." Thankfully, it only took me a little while to do, but it's definitely an anxiety-filling experience.

I'm not gonna find out the analysis of the clinic for two weeks. It takes a while for the Dr. to weed through the 800 pages of data that a sleep clinic generates for just one person. It'll be interesting to see if it turns up anything.