All tied up

I haven't slept through the night since 2002 and the situation finally got on my last nerve. So my doctor recommended me for the Athens Sleep Research Clinic and I had my appointment last night.

It's like an apartment hallway, nicely painted with numbered rooms. Inside the rooms it's well-appointed with a bed, easy chair-recliner, cable tv, and a bureau. A nurse comes in to hook up your head, face, chest, and legs with electrodes, many many electrodes. One goes a little up way your nose too. Then they say lay down and sleep tight. You try not to notice all the video cameras pointed directly at the bed. One is even inside a bubble, like at the casinos, the 'Eye in the Sky.'

The lights go off at either 9:30 pm or 10:30 pm and then you lie there trying not to move too much and dislodge the electrodes or roll over an choke on them. They monitor breathing, temperature, movement, etc all night long.

At 5:50 am the lights go on and they unhook you. The goop on your face and hair takes a lot of hot water to get off in the shower. You fill out a questionnaire and then off you go, into the humid, pre-dawn Georgia day.

I get my results in a week or so during a follow-up with my doc.