A tale of sleep apnea, in pictures

After I saw this one morning, I wondered why am I not sleeping? I had just arisen from a cozy 4-post bed in a little cabin by the cove I rented each year in Lubec Maine. Why are the covers tortured, twisted, and evidence war on sleep, not peace? I thought, why do I not sleep, even on vacation?

A few years later a doctor recommended a sleep apnea test. I wrote before that I had gone through the paces and the docs found I wake up 30 times an hour and hold my breath up to a minute and a half. I am in the highest category for those who "don't wake up." Oh. So the mask forces oxygen into my nose and lungs even if I stop breathing. It keeps an even circulation at night so my brain doesn't deplete and I wake up even more tired than when I went to bed, an ever-devolving cycle that leads to eventual breakdown.

And now I sleep like a baby! In the morning I simply throw the covers back like this to get up, and to make the bed only have to flip them up again. It looks like no one even slept in it! I sleep deeply, don't wake up constantly, and awake refreshed. Life is good.

Separated at birth?

Movie and book character Hannibal Lecter


My CPAP mask, for sleep apnea

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.