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It Happened to Me

Where I Slept Tuesday Night

The Ginger Ninja was a bit concerned about my snoring and claims it sounds as though I stop breathing in my sleep — a sign of possible sleep apnea. Although I generally wake up feeling rested, I thought that it would be a good idea to get myself booked into a sleep lab. Hence I spent Tuesday night here:

Bed at the sleep lab, St. Joseph’s Health Centre

It was simple enough. After going for 24 hours without caffeine (which gave me a headache, a sure sign that I really should cut down), I showed up at 9:30 p.m. and was led to my room, where I filled out a couple of questionnaires about my sleeping habits and then read while waiting for the tech to prep me.

About an hour later, I got wired up — quite literally — with a number of sensors:

  • On my forehead
  • Behind by ears
  • On my head (which meant that I had hair full of electroconductive goop)
  • On my neck (a piezoelectric sensor to detect snoring)
  • On my nose (to detect nose breathing)
  • A band across my chest
  • A band across my stomach
  • On my lower legs (to detect leg twitching)
  • On my right index finger (heartbeat monitor)

Once wired, the tech went into the control room and asked me over the intercom to do a number of things to calibrate the sensors, such as:

  • Alternating between looking up and down
  • Alternating between looking left and right
  • Pointing the toes in my left and right legs
  • Closing my eyes
  • Breathing only through my nose
  • Breathing only through my mouth

In addition to all these sensors, I noticed the night-vision camera on the opposite wall pointing at the bed. I’m pulling out this wedgie in the bathroom, I thought.

Once this was done, they brought me a reading light to my beside and told me that I should try to fall asleep between 11:00 p.m. and midnight. I was already feeling tired from a lack of caffeine and after reading a few chapters of Everything is Miscellaneous, I decided to turn out the light. It was around 11:30.

In spite of being in a strange bed, having all these cables tugging at me and the bright red light of the fingertip heartbeat sensor, I fell asleep quickly (as I normally do). The bed was comfy and the room was quiet and had a decent air conditioner. They woke me up at 6:30, and after disengaging me from the sensor pack and filling out a one-sheet questionnaire on how I slept, I headed off to work since it was really close by.

I guess I’ll be hearing from my doctor soon.

10 replies on “Where I Slept Tuesday Night”

If you’d been living in the USA, that test would have cost you US$6000.

Have a good day, eh?

I thought of trying something like that because I used to have trouble ‘getting’ to sleep – it was the only time my brain seemed to be working was when I was trying to relax it. I never did though, and I guess I’m glad I didn’t, for sure I wouldn’t fall asleep all hooked up to stuff with a camera watching me drool.

“If you’d been living in the USA, that test would have cost you US$6000”

The flipside in Canada is that it takes about 6 months to get an appointment with a sleep specialist (and you need to see your GP first to get a referral) who can prescribe the sleep study.

One way Americans can get around the sleep study is to use an auto-CPAP machine. A CPAP machine would normally be perscribed if you have sleep apnea anyway. Even if you don’t have the condition, it doesn’t hurt to use.

The machine costs thousands, but can be rented. Their primary function is for those who can’t stand a sleep study and prefer the comfort of their own bed — or who want to save $6000.

The auto-CPAP fluxuates air pressure into your air passages and records the level at which optimum pressure exists. This is the system sleep clinics use once you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea.

Once you’ve figured out what you need, the big expense is buying the machine. I’m not sure about the States but in Canada the government pays for half, and often your work insurance pays for the other half. If you don’t have insurance, you pay for it yourself (about $1000).

So the Canadian system stills finds a way to screw the under-privileged.

It only took me about 2 weeks to get an appointment (could’ve gotten one sooner, but my schedule was the limiting factor). The CPAP machine they gave me was 3/4 paid for by the government, leaving me only to pick up about $400, which private extended insurance will probably reimburse me for (I have to see the specialist again to get a proper prescription written before i submit the claim).

Sleep clinics don’t seem to have very much latency in this city. Ear, Nose & Throat specialists, on the other hand, are high on the demand and low on the supply. I had to wait about 1.5 months to be seen after I jabbed myself in the ear with a Q-tip (no hearing loss thank god).

[…] My appointment at the sleep lab was, if you’ll pardon the expression, my wake-up call. “Don’t take any caffeine for at least 24 hours before your sleep lab session,” I was told. I decided to go without caffeine a full 48 hours beforehand. A mere six hours before my session, I was deep into one skull-crusher of a headache and went crawling to Maria, the keeper of the office’s ibuprofen supply for help. […]

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