the (let's make you so uncomfortable so you can't hardly sleep) sleep study

Last night, I went to the oh-so-lovely Cayuga Medical Center (heavy sarcasm here) for an overnight sleep study. We're trying to get to the bottom of why I sleep for 8 or 9 hours and still feel very tired. The study was quite an adventure...

After the four of us arrived at the sleep lab, they show us to our individual rooms. The room did have a full-sized bed, rather than just a hospital bed, but the size was the only difference. I would think that if they're studying people sleeping, they'd actually want them to be able to sleep and giving them a decent bed and pillows that didn't resemble pancakes would help. But that's just me. Fortunately, due to their recommendation, I brought my own pillow. If I do have to repeat the study (and yes that's a possibility), I will bring my own 3 pillows instead of 1, to make it a little more cozy. After chilling for an hour while the tech put the wires on the woman next door, he came in to spend almost an hour attaching leads to me. I got:

1 on the crown of my head

1 on the top of my head

2 on my temples, one on each side

2 just by my cheekbones, one on each side

2 along my jaw line

2 on my throat

2 on my chest

4 on my legs

Along with

a pulse oximeter on my finger

a bizarre wired thing that sat under my nose and above my mouth that measured my breathing, held in place by a nose tube.

A band across the top of my chest

A band across my abdomen

All of these wires were collected into a "wire ponytail" that went behind my head. After climbing into bed, the tech attached my wire ponytail to the machines next to the bed, then we tested out each of the leads and the speaker/camera system when he went into the Control Room (as I decided to call it just now). And then it was time to go to sleep.... Riiiight (use Bill Cosby's voice from his Noah sketch here). I read for a while, but am not sleepy at all. It doesn't help that closing my eyes pulls on the leads just on my check bones, so it seems the paste and wire are trying to pry my eyes open again.

After an hour and a half of reading, laying and trying to think "relaxed thoughts" and NOT think about what my brain waves look like as I jump from singing in my head and to different topics, finally flipping through channels and settling on Letterman as something that might put me to sleep, I do fall asleep. The requirement was that I sleep 2 hours some time between 11 pm and 5:45 am (yep that's when I got woken). I did do that, but didn't surpass it by much. I woke up a few times, in a fair amount of pain from awkward bed and sleeping positions, and tried to sleep some more. When I woke up at the end of the study, I felt like I had been beaten up, put through a ringer, and then not allowed to sleep... After getting all the leads home, I cleaned myself up a bit. I had piles of paste and red wax pencil on my face and head - I kind of looked like I'd been beaten up too. I drove myself home (in hindsight not a brilliant idea, I know for next time). After a very long, hot shower to get the paste out of my hair in various places and a first breakfast, I collapsed in bed. I'm feeling much better now, after 2 more hours of sleep and a large cup of coffee (mmmm Vanilla Caramel Latte from International Cafe by Maxwell House).

My souvenir from the test is a print out of my brain waves! I was asking my tech Mike what the difference was in the readings of a person relaxing with their eyes closed and a person asleep, so he brought me one page of printouts of each type from my study. By far the coolest part of the experience :). Now, I wait a week to get my test results. Send prayers or good thoughts (whichever you do) that they actually figure out something that we can fix (as opposed to them telling me, "Oh, you do this, but we can't do anything to help you...").

Boston Day

Since Tuesday evening, I've been in Boston, mostly in Cambridge, MA, for a math conference (my first ever!). I have had gluten-free pizza, lovely breakfasts at my cute B&B, and nice walks to and from campus. I find myself smiling pretty much wherever I'm walking, which is a nice thing ;). I think a big part of it, beyond the fact that the buildings are pretty and roses are in bloom, is that I feel I actually belong here. The first (and only other) time I was here in Boston was when I was searching for grad schools, and my time in Boston was rather terrible overall, including crying in a Harvard Science Center bathroom due to feeling completely out of place and unworthy. But now! I know stuff, I'm a grad student, and I'm here to learn even more! Plus they're funding me to be here! Take that, Harvard math department ;). Now, of course, I realize I would've been completely in over my head and out of place as a grad student here, but I think they could've been nicer about it.

But - I began the day by going to 2 talks, meeting some famous and less famous people (go me!), including convincing one that I'm an idiot, though I'm told he makes everyone feel this way. Then, I played hooky for a while to go to the Boston Common. I had a lovely walk in the sunshine, at lunch near the Civil War veteran memorial, watched a bicycle cop stare at some guy sitting on a bench with his back to the cop... apparently he looked like he was doing something not-so-much-on-the-up-and-up... then wandered down to the Swan Pond, saw a nesting swan and the daddy finding more twigs. Swans are really quite awkward on land, but graceful in the water. After a rest in the sunshine on a bench near the pond, my totally awesome sister found me a place only 2 blocks away with gluten-free dessert! So, after admiring the awesome smelling roses a second time, I got myself a Dark Chocolate Decadence at Finale. I wandered back to the park to eat my cake - this cake included dark chocolate mocha flourless cake covered in chocolate ganache, topped with gold flakes and a triangular chocolate that had "Finale" written on it! After eating for a little while, some of the squirrels got very curious. In fact, one came up to about 2 inches away from my lap on one side, and then another came up to a couple inches from my purse next to me on the other side. Trying to shoo them away (and seeing that they had suspicious red bumps/blisters on the tops of their feet) and having them come back a few times, I decided to run away from the squirrels. While still surprised by their behavior, I made a face in the direction of one of the Bostonian passers-by, and he got a chuckle out of me being attacked by squirrels wanting my awesome cake.

I wandered back towards the Capital Building (seeing a store called Finagle a Bagel and an office Gentle Dental) to hop on the T to my Inn. I needed to get the other half of delicious cake back in the fridge!

Later, after a talk by an 84 year old French mathematician (J.P. Serre), I wandered down to Harvard Square to meander. I stopped by the Harvard Co-op (a humongous book store, plus cafe, plus apparel store), found a homemade ice cream place but had to walk in the opposite direction due to large amounts of cake earlier :), and then I found the most awesome store ever! Bob Slate: Stationer! Beeya and I would be in heaven... I just wandered around for a long time looking at all the pretty things.

I headed back to the Science Center when thunder started rolling, as I didn't want to get caught in a downpour, and I didn't! I just got to sit inside and watch it! :)

In the evening session, one of the big-named math guys mentioned something very close to (and including) what I'm working on for my thesis as an interesting problem. Cool that he thinks it's interesting, bad if other people start working on it!

All in all, a good day in Boston, though all the walking and sitting in auditorium chairs and sleeping on hard beds is making my body hurt... I'm ready to be back home.