vent about tech

[SleepingUgly]

What tech starts the clock when the lights are still on?! Doesn't the clock start when the lights are out? Why not start the clock when I drive into the parking lot and say my sleep onset was REALLY delayed?!

Annoyed.

[kteague]

Don't they have to take you through all the setup testing steps (look up, look down, etc) with lights out before they start? Would be interested in hearing from a tech on this.

[Sludge]

What tech starts the clock when the lights are still on?! Doesn't the clock start when the lights are out? Why not start the clock when I drive into the parking lot and say my sleep onset was REALLY delayed?!

What "clock" are you talking about? Just because the stuff is turned on doesn't even mean anything is being recorded ("Monitor Mode"). Then once "Collection" starts, Sleep Time doesn't begin until the record is actually tagged "Lights Out".

[SleepingUgly]

In my latest sleep study, they hooked me up, we did the tests, then I read in bed for awhile, then they turned out the lights. I was on 10mg of Ambien, which knocks me out, and it says I had delayed onset for 40 minutes. No way, unless the entire time after the tests was counted as "delayed sleep", including the time I was reading Oprah Magazine!

[chunkyfrog]

I would complain if they didn't at least wait until the lights were out and my head hit the pillow.

[ubnoxus]

I'm no tech but I'd say yes it is delayed onset if you sat and read a magazine with Ambien taken. If I can get my legs swung into bed before I'm asleep I feel lucky with no meds. My wife takes Ambien and within 10-15 minutes she is out. Both of my studies I was fighting falling asleep just doing the eye and leg tests, my onset was like 3 minutes at first one, and 6 minutes at the titration. I said no way it was like 90 seconds on both lol

[SleepingUgly]

I'm no tech but I'd say yes it is delayed onset if you sat and read a magazine with Ambien taken.

Then maybe you and my tech had the same training.

[chunkyfrog]

Maybe the rules are different if you need a sleep med?
Would they start counting when you swallow?

[kteague]

My first thought was they shouldn't have counted your reading time toward your sleep onset time, but the more I think about it, seems like once they had you in bed and ready to roll, whatever time it took you to fall asleep would be regardless of how that time was spent. Otherwise, a person could read for hours, turn out the lights when they get sleepy, then appear to fall immediately asleep. That wouldn't be an accurate reflection of their sleep problems. I think in these circumstances communication with precise language would have been helpful. It should be routine when a person opts to do anything after the start time it is communicated that this time will count toward their sleep onset time. But then again, I doubt many patients care or are that in tune with the whole process for the information to matter to them.

[DoriC]

Are you going to follow up on this? I'd like to know they explain the scoring.

[SleepingUgly]

Kathy, if they start the clock when the lights are on and the person isn't trying to sleep, it becomes a Maintenance of Wakefulness Test. I even went to the bathroom after reading! Anyone who falls asleep while walking to the bathroom has more serious problems than even I do!

[ubnoxus]

Lol don't get cranky everyone is attempting to help you understand. If you didn't want responses you shouldn't of posted to begin with.

[SleepingUgly]

Lol don't get cranky everyone is attempting to help you understand. If you didn't want responses you shouldn't of posted to begin with.

Who's cranky? Not me. I just completely disagree that they can start the clock while you're in the bathroom or reading, jerking off while watching TV, or whatever else one might due while awake in bed. It renders "latency to sleep" useless.

[ubnoxus]

They can do anything they want

Once you are in bed the time starts, anything you do at a slept study is evaluated to see how long you take to goto sleep. If you weren't ready then you should of scheduled the appointment at your bedtime. It's called a sleep study not a reading study

[SleepingUgly]

They can do anything they want

Once you are in bed the time starts, anything you do at a slept study is evaluated to see how long you take to goto sleep. If you weren't ready then you should of scheduled the appointment at your bedtime. It's called a sleep study not a reading study

Have you ever been to a sleep study? It is NOT the case that "anything you do at a slept study is evaluated to see how long you take to goto sleep". Sometimes they are even evaluating whether you can stay awake (e.g., Maintenance of Wakefulness Test). But the time to sleep onset is a rather important variable, as in the absence of sedating medication and/or sleep deprivation, a very short onset to sleep is a clue to various conditions (e.g., sleep disorder causing sleep deprivation in the absence of overt sleep deprivation, excessive sleepiness, possible narcolepsy to be explored further, etc.).

And, no, they can't do anything they want. If they do anything they want, the data becomes meaningless. You can't say there is "prolonged latency to sleep onset" if there are no norms about what is typical sleep onset, and you can't have normative data if one place starts the clock with lights and TV on, another place starts it when you pull up in the parking lot, and a third starts it when lights go out.