And My Sleep Study Results Are In

Last year, due to an issue with my breathing not always being autonomic, I was sent for a sleep study to see if that would shed light on the situation.

It was in June, only a couple of months into COVID-19 restrictions. This added to my overall nervousness about the study; I didn't want to get COVID-19.

Why I was nervous about the sleep study

I was nervous because ever since I can remember, I've never been able to sleep well in a new environment. I didn't like sleeping over at friends' houses due to the separation anxiety that I have.

As an adult, I would be lucky if I got an hour of sleep when stuck at someone's house for the night because there wasn't a sober driver. (The only reason I didn't sleep at home)

Voicing my concerns at the sleep clinic

When I spoke with one of the receptionists at the sleep clinic before the appointment, I brought up my concern about not being able to sleep in a new environment and how that may impact the test results. She reassured me that I would be in a soundproof room, that there is a fan for white noise, and that I could bring something else for white noise – a rain track that I have on a cell phone.

I'm still highly skeptical about how well I would sleep, and honestly, I do wonder if it had any effect on the results. After all, my husband couldn't come with me because of COVID-19, so I still had separation anxiety.

Getting hooked up for the night

The night of the sleep study arrived and my husband dropped me off at the building. After answering some COVID-19 questions, I was shown the room I would be staying in. I wasn't allowed to bring my own pillow because of COVID restrictions, which really sucked because I use a special pillow for my neck due to an old injury to one of the discs in my neck.

After an hour, I was taken into the back room to be hooked up with all the electrodes and other monitoring doohickeys. After half an hour, I was hooked into the equipment beside the bed and the technician watching me that night made sure that she could see and hear me with the camera in the bedroom and the microphone.

After making sure everything was hooked up correctly and she was getting readings, I was left alone to go to sleep. I remember my restless legs syndrome (RLS) was quite bad as I was trying to fall asleep and had to move my legs a lot. I also remember thinking that was a good thing because it was being monitored/recorded.

Falling asleep and waking up

I can't remember how long it took to fall asleep. I think it was probably about half an hour. I remember trying to meditate myself to sleep. There's a little meditation story I tell myself in my head. After, I think, 3 hours, I woke up needing to go to the bathroom. I alerted the technician, and she came in to unhook me from the machines.

When I was done, she helped me back into bed and got me hooked up again. It took a while to fall back asleep, but the next thing I knew, I was being woken up at 6:20 AM; the study was done. 

I was brought into the back room again to get all the electrodes taken off and I was told I was good to go home after answering a couple of questions on a form. I was informed the results would be back within a couple of days, and they would call me to set up an appointment to go over the results.

Even though I had been in bed by 9:48 PM and only woke up once in the middle night to go to the bathroom, I felt like I had maybe only slept about 8 hours.

Getting my sleep study results

When I finally got the results, I was told I have obstructive sleep apnea and RLS. I found out I only slept for 7 hours. My spontaneous arousal rate was 18.2/hr for a total of 84 minutes awake during the night. I also suffered from some hypopnea episodes throughout the night. My overall Apnea-Hypopnea Index was 6.6 events per hour.