Wired Up

These are the remnants of last night's sleep study. They wire you up, literally from head to foot.

I don't know how I was able to get any sleep, immobilized by all of those wires, but I slept like a log.

This wasn't my first study. In fact it was my fourth. I have a disorder called upper airway resistance syndrome. It's a form of sleep apnea. I wear a special dental appliance every night to help keep my airway open.

The purpose of having the study done was to check the efficacy of the appliance. I've been suffering daytime fatigue and one of my sleep specialists had doubts about it. If the tech discovered that I had any apneas, she was to put a CPAP on me for the rest of the night to improve my sleep. I dared her to find any apneas. In the three previous tests, there weren't any.

Apparently, I didn't have any this time either because I awoke without the CPAP. She couldn't tell me anything about what she observed but I figured out all I needed to know.

The appliance is still working and I won't be cajoled into using a CPAP that I don't want.

Score one for the patient. Zero for the doctor.