Sleep Study

I did a three night sleep study over the weekend and was excited to hear that I could do it at home rather than at a sleep center. My excitement wore off at bedtime as I climbed into the device, attached all the sensors, secured all safety straps, and noted emergency exits. I was surprised this contraption didn’t come with some kind of parachute or airbag in the event I fall out of bed! A built in neck massager would have been a nice touch though.

The sleep monitor strapped on like a camp head light with three sensors – two measure eye movement and one measures pulse and oxygen saturation. A microphone records snoring and a nasal pronged measures the airflow through your nose. Not quite the tiara I’m used to.

The first night was a long one - six hours was about all I could manage. The next two nights were brief and only tolerated about two hours before I took it off for some more comfortable sleep. I woke up a few times during the night – once to an alarm telling me to adjust one of the sensors but overall I managed to get enough hours of sleep to generate a report.

Monday morning I handed the device over to our nurse manager who plugged it in to the computer like an iPod and within a few hours I was excited to have a report in hand. Our nurse was quick to stifle my excitement to point out that the results weren’t good. Apparently I have such severe sleep apnea that the computer bolded and underlined the word Severe. I stopped breathing (or nearly stopped breathing) more than 180 times and average only about a half hour of restful sleep per night.

So… that’s why I’m so tired ALL THE TIME! The good news…. Weight loss surgery will likely cure my sleep apnea. Hmm… I wonder what it will be like to sleep well.

The next step is to see sleep specialist Dr. McCoy at Cox & McCoy Md. Hopefully I won’t have to repeat the study but we’ll see.


Cox & Mccoy Md
7320 216th St SW Ste 20
Edmonds, WA 98026
(425) 673-3850