Sleep study with nap study - in progress.

[DreamDiver]

I'm at the Asheville Sleep Center getting a sleep study and a nap study. I'm about halfway through the nap study, and the sleep study was last night. I have an appointment to talk to the doc right after I'm finished. They took off some of the wires (belly, chest, legs) for the nap study. I use my cpap for naps to, so I'm using their machine with my mask. They use a BiPAP Synchrony 'Lab System' with a 'Sandman digital 32+ amplifier' in cpap mode.

[lookin4sleep]

Sorry, Dream, what's a nap study?

Chris

[Babette]

It's shorter than a full night's worth of sleep. It's nap-length.

Sorry, couldn't resist...
Babs

[DreamDiver]

They watch you sleep for up to 5 short naps during the day with four 2-hour stints in between. One of the things they look for apparently is narcolepsy. I didn't know that until I got a sheet asking me to pee in a cup at an outside testing facility right after I leave here. (I have to prove I'm not swaying the results with some sleeping drug - I'm not worried about that at all.) You're not supposed to start dreaming before you fall asleep. I do. That's about all I know right now. The doc doesn't want to say much more until the techs have fully interpreted the results - and the drug screen. I should know more in a week.

@Babs,

[rested gal]

Sorry, Dream, what's a nap study?

Chris

There are two kinds of "nap" tests sleep labs perform. Chris's is apparently an "MSLT" test since he mentions they will be checking for narcolepsy.

Link to a sleep center describing what to expect at their lab:
http://www.sleepsmart.com/sleepinfo/MSLT_MWT.htm

Questions About MSLT and MWT

Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) to rule out Narcolepsy.

This is a series of nap studies that are performed primarily during the day and shortly after your sleep study. The first nap will begin approximately 1.5-2 hours after you are awakened from your sleep study. You will have naps tested in two hour increments. These naps are opportunities for you to sleep. In between each nap you are to remain awake and out of bed. We will not force you to sleep. Some of the monitoring devices placed on you from the overnight sleep study will be removed (respiratory belts, finger probe, nasal/oral thermocouple) for the nap study. You are required to change into your daytime clothes. We will provide you with breakfast and lunch during this study. If you have any dietary restrictions, please let the Sleep Center know before the study. You are not allowed to consume any caffeinated beverages during the day. This is a standardized test to rule out Narcolepsy and/or Idiopathic Hypersomnolence; both are sleep disorders where you would be excessively sleepy.

Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) to assess one’s level of alertness.

This is a series of nap studies that are performed primarily during the day after your sleep study. The first nap will generally begin 1.5-2 hours after you are awakened from your sleep study. You will have sessions tested in two hour increments. These sessions are opportunities for you to remain awake. Some of the monitoring devices placed on you from the overnight sleep study will be removed (respiratory belts, finger probe, nasal/oral thermocouple) for the nap study. You are required to change into your daytime clothes. We will provide you with breakfast and lunch during this study. If you have any dietary restrictions, please let the Sleep Center know before the study. You are not allowed to consume any caffeinated beverages during the day. You will either be sitting up in bed or sitting in a chair in a dark room. You will try to remain awake for a period of 20 minutes for each nap. During this 20 minute period, you are not allowed to stimulate yourself in any manner (i.e., pinching, singing, etc.). In between each nap study, you are to stay out of bed and try to remain awake. This is a standardized test to justify your level of alertness/wakefulness (for employment reasons). Do not take any naps on the day of your study.

[Babette]

Man, I'm sure glad they didn't sign me up for that. I can't nap when I WANT to nap. I sure bet I wouldn't be able to nap with people WATCHING ME! Talk about your Nap Performance Anxiety!

Must be why my diagnosis is "hypersomnia" instead of "narcolepsy".

Good luck Diver!
B.

[rested gal]

More links about the MSLT (Multiple Sleep Latency Test) and MWT (Maintenance of Wakefulness Test):

http://www.guideline.gov/summary/summar ... oc_id=6832

http://www.sleepeducation.com/Topic.aspx?id=38

http://www.cdh.org/ClinicalServices.aspx?id=9317

PDF Review of MSLT and MWT by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
http://www.aasmnet.org/Search.aspx?SearchTerm=mslt

[nomoore]

Man, I'm sure glad they didn't sign me up for that. I can't nap when I WANT to nap. I sure bet I wouldn't be able to nap with people WATCHING ME! Talk about your Nap Performance Anxiety!

Must be why my diagnosis is "hypersomnia" instead of "narcolepsy".

Good luck Diver!
B.

I know what you mean. I can't nap during the day unless I'm sick. It doesn't matter how tired I am. I may get so exhausted I'm dizzy and literally can't see straight (eyes don't want to focus) but I still can't nap. Sometimes I want to sleep SOOOOO badly but I can't. It's like my head has this constant buzz keeping me awake during the day. It must be adrenaline or something. I guess my body has decided it can't tell by tiredness anymore whether I need sleep. It takes me no time to get to sleep once bedtime rolls around though.

[Babette]

YUP! THAT'S IT!

Vastly irritating, that. I was doing that Saturday night while trying to sleep without my cpap. Frickin' brain would just not shut up. It kept singing songs to me.... I think it gets bored and wants to be amused. Maybe I should play it books on tape while attempting to sleep - maybe that would keep it amused.

Cheers,
Babs - the ever Wakeful and Vigilant, though also sleepy and cranky....

[jnk]

. . . You're not supposed to start dreaming before you fall asleep. . . .

Rules, rules, rules! I'll dream whenever I dang well please!

Hope the "rest" of the study goes well and the results are helpful.

[DreamDiver]

The nap test is over. I've got a splitting headache for some reason. Huh - maybe they had me at the wrong pressure. It'll pass. Apparently it's not normal to dream before falling asleep. That's something I've always done. I also wake up in the middle of a dream most of the time. I think they were surprised. Actually I was surprised - I thought that was normal. I should have put two and two together and realized they were testing for narcolepsy. Duh! One thing was weird. The doc said I didn't have enough actual sleep time during the night to compare with the nap times, but if that were the case, why did they cut the sleep time short by two hours and drop the last nap? I don't quite get that. I've done the drug screen at the local 'Park and Pee'. They also wanted blood in a purple-topped tube. I will be talking with the doc again sometime next week or the week after. He's not entirely convinced it's narcolepsy. Well skepticism is good. I get the impression that narcolepsy might mean needing to take a drug to stay awake. I'm pretty sure I don't get enough delta or theta sleep either, so that might be a clue that it's something else. If he's got a better answer that doesn't involve drugs, I'll be glad. My symptoms are apparently unique, even for narcolepsy.

@Rested Gal,
Thanks for the explanations and links. Yes, mine was the multiple sleep latency test.

@Babs,
Thanks!

@nomoore,
I've always been able to nap at a moments notice. Give me any excuse, and I'll sleep for up to ninety minutes.

@jnk,
Thanks - you tell 'em.

Does anyone here have Narcolepsy? If the standard treatment is drugs, I'll likely take a look at neurofeedback as a second-to-last resort before trying drugs.

[Babette]

I know nothing about narcolepsy.

I do want to know how you can dream without being asleep. How do you KNOW you're dreaming? What's the difference between that and just THINKING ABOUT STUFF?

Very intriguing brain you have there.... Can you taste colors too? Just kidding.

Good luck!!!
B.

[jnk]

. . . Apparently it's not normal to dream before falling asleep. . . .

Maybe. But as I understand it, the jury may be out on that one:

"Hypnagogic hallucination

"These hallucinations occur just before falling asleep, and affect a surprisingly high proportion of the population. The hallucinations can last from seconds to minutes, all the while the subject usually remains aware of the true nature of the images. These are usually associated with narcolepsy, but can also affect normal minds."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucination

"CONCLUSIONS: Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations were much more common than expected, with a prevalence that far exceeds that which can be explained by the association with narcolepsy."

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/abstract/169/4/459

[Babette]

Oh yeah. We talked about that previously. Waking dreams. Is that what you have, Diver?
B.

[DreamDiver]

Babs,
No tasting of colors or hearing images. Synesthesia isn't my bag.

jnk,
I don't think those are hallucinations because my eyes are closed and I'm supine and falling asleep. I know they're dreams the way you just know you're dreaming. For instance, one dream was about a doughnut truck with the green letters 'Donut-0's' on the side pulling out of a strip-mall. That's all it was. The next dream was about a curvy red-haired woman dressed expensively in a flowery blouse, blue slacks and high-heels upset and attempting to retrieve her laundry that had blown off the line in her grassy back yard. Another was about six people dressed in white painter's overalls coming around a very tall building on a sidewalk with ladders. I've never been to any of these places, and don't know any of these people, but they seem just like regular dreams, except more mundane - usually stuff that can actually happen. Sometimes I hear someone calling my name as I fall asleep. Usually it sounds like my mother or father or one of my siblings. Sometimes I hear a door knock. Whether it's a mundane visual dream or a door-knock, it's always just enough to make me wake up and just enough to recognize that it's just a dream. It's more of a small annoyance than anything. The dreams feel just like regular dreams except they're about people I don't know doing every-day things. I doubt any of them really exist, but it sure makes me wonder how I could dream up such wildly random and wildly specific scenery and people, right down to the lines on peoples faces. Middle-of-the-night dreams usually involve things I can't actually do in real life, like walking through walls, talking to animals, animals talking back, flying, telepathy, etc., but otherwise feel the same.

However, there is something that must be the hallucinations you're talking about that happen as I wake up in the morning. I get auditory hallucinations that often sound like something only an electronic synthesizer could make. Some of them are bird-like. Others are impossible to explain. Sometimes it's entirely original music with lyrics that's really catchy. That's been happening since I was a child. Recently though, sometimes it's visual hallucinations - fractal imagery of incredible intricacy that change form with a mere thought. It's very cool looking, and for lack of a better description, multidimensional - less about color and more about spacial relationships. It usually only last a few seconds before I'm totally awake. That's just started happening in the last couple years. It looks way cool, but I'm pretty sure most people don't do that.