You want me to SLEEP like this?!?!

I spent the night at the hospital last night for a sleep study and monitoring. The sleep study area is a part of Children's hospital on the 10th floor that is a little scary.. You press a button for them to let you in and when you get inside it's a long dark hallway that is completely silent. Apparently I was the first one there because it was deserted. We got there at 7:15 and filled out all the paper work and got to my room. The rooms are really nice! They are just hospital rooms that are a little bigger and decorated really nice. Why can't all hospital rooms look like that? And, the shower was a whole lot nicer than the rest of Children's showers, which doesn't make sense because your not even allowed to take a shower during the sleep study. Great planning, I know.

They told me to get ready for bed and they would come back and hook me up. Hook up took about an hour...so I got done with that at 9:15. They wanted lights to go out at 10. What?! I don't fall asleep until 4 am! That is like 6 hours from now.. So they let me stay up "late" and read while they hooked up other patients.
There were wires on my head, neck, face, heart, legs, and stomach. Then I had two different things in my nose and mouth. I had a belt on my chest and stomach that was really tight and almost suffocated me. Oh well, they would have known if I stopped breathing, since they monitor your every move. I also had a pulse-ox on my finger to monitor my oxygen levels.
I was a little freaked out to even move with all the wires and everything. Also, after everything was hooked up, my nurse came over the intercom and made me move my eyes and hold my breath and all this testing so they could make sure they could see me and know everything I did. I asked what button I pushed if I had to go to the bathroom (which I think would have been impossible. Good thing I dehydrated myself yesterday so I wouldn't have to go...) and she said "oh just talk and say something, we can hear everything you say." OH that makes me feel better. So you've heard everything I've been saying the whole time I've been here?! Wonderful.

So lights went out around 11 and I layed there and made faces at the camera. Just kidding, I should have though. It was a long night of restless sleep. How could you sleep being hooked up like that and knowing that they are watching you? This morning all she could tell us was that I woke up a lot. We get the results back in 7-10 business days. When she took all the wires and monitors off, there was a glob of sticky paste everywhere that there had been a wire. That apparently helped hold the wires in place and helped to get an accurate reading. I still have globs in my hair. I hope it comes out easily!

The room was really nice!