At 2.00 a.m. I am awoken first by some ear-piercing feedback and then the voice of Bing, my sleep technician who has wired me for the sleep study I am doing. His voice comes in low and soothing on a speaker over the bed telling me he’s going to come in and put the CPAP (“sea-pap”) device on my face – uh, ok. At this point, I thought the study was a failure because I felt I had been barely asleep at all and so how could he have heard snoring or seen signs of apnea? Apnea is the momentary stopping of breathing and in my case, according to my wife, I stop breathing for 5 to 10 seconds and then gasp for air. During sleep this causes people to momentarily awake although we don’t know it and in turn, we don’t really sleep correctly, deeply enough, or restfully. So I figure Bing is putting on the mask to see if I can fall asleep or something, but heck, it’s 2:00 a.m., what do I know?
As Bing the sleep tech leaves the room, turns off the lights, there’s his voice again, “John, I’d like you to lay on your back and try to go to sleep” – whatever. Like this is going to happen, it’s just going to be one long wasted night and I’ll have to reschedule for another study – crap. Zzzzz, I’m out. I tried rolling onto my side where I usually sleep, but the mask isn’t exactly comfortable in that position so I am again on my back. Finally, I’ve had enough of this and I ask Bing what time it is and if he has enough data: I’m wide awake and ready to leave. He tells me it is 6:00 a.m., and I’m flabbergasted. Where did the time go? Strangely I am not groggy at all, I am crystal clear and not drowsy at all. Matter of fact I can remember two dreams and from the past year, I have had difficulty knowing if I have dreamt at all. It finally becomes clear, I slept horribly from 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. went by in 2 minutes because, for the first time in years, I slept like a baby – so maybe I actually do snore, and do have apnea, I won’t know the final details until August 23rd on my follow-up with Dr. Hooper.
