Here is some information about my sleep test and a few miscellaneous photos from Chicago. Readers’ wildlife photos will return tomorrow, so keep sending them in!
First, wish me luck; next Tuesday I am taking a home sleep test, which involves the items shown below (you also need the right app on your phone). It used to be that to take a sleep test you’d have to spend the night in the hospital, all wired up to various devices. How can you sleep normally under such conditions? But things have changed for the better. After all, it’s much better to sleep in your own bed, which is what you can do with the equipment below.
Here’s the kit:
- A watchlike device that apparently transmits data to the hospital through your phone. You wear it on your non-dominant hand.
- The data come from the tubular device fastened to one of your fingers, as well as an electrode that you tape (using the medical tape provided) to the little hollow at the base of the front of your neck. You can use any finger on your non-dominant hand save the thumb.
- Your cellphone, which has to be within fifteen feet of the watch.
So, you put the battery in the watch, put the watch on your wrist, put the finger device on your finger, put the electrode on your throat, and then press “begin” on your app. Then you go to sleep—or try to. You have to record for seven hours at the minimum. At the end you press “stop recording” on the phone app, and wait while the data (presumably mostly indicating your breathing) is transmitted to the hospital. In a few seconds it should be over, and you can discard the whole kit.
It appears to be designed to detect sleep apnea, but there is no sign I have the condition, as nobody has ever reported me snoring or waking up gasping for breath, and sometimes I’m up all night not able to sleep, with no breathing problems at all. But the doctors tell me you can have sleep apnea without knowing it (I find this nearly impossible to believe when I’m awake all night breathing normally), but they won’t treat me further unless I take this test. So be it: my own view is that the cause of my insomnia is pure anxiety.
And some miscellaneous photos taken on my walk home and to work. First, fall is here (don’t forget to set your clocks back tomorrow):
Given the number of immigrants in Chicago, with many surely undocumented, ICE is a big deal. There have been attempted apprehensions in Hyde Park, which have led to signs like the one below, on the door of a local bakery that employs Hispanics. There are also other signs taped to lightposts that aren’t so polite, saying “F-ck ICE” and saying that ICE are Nazis. Note that in the sign below, ICE is depicted as a hungry alligator.
And good news for lovers of Botany Pond: Yesterday afternoon three of the five turtles put back in the pond (they were removed when the pond was drained several years ago), were sunning themselves on a warm rock yesterday afternoon. I haven’t seen them sunning themselves for a couple of weeks, so I think they’re getting used to the pond. They look healthy, no? I suspect the other two were either swimming around or were ensconced in their “turtle dens” on the pond bottom.
Yes – a sleep study.
There’s different apneas – I think obstructive and another kind of neuro/motor one.
Shallow breathing is another way to express it. I would definitely catch myself shallow breathing during the day. Actually, I’ll be checking again now.
Thanks for sharing.
Best of luck with that sleep study, Jerry.
Learning meditation with the Waking Up app helped me deal with anxiety and had an additional benefit of making it easier go to sleep or go back to sleep.
The word abductions is invidious. Surely the legal apprehension of illegal aliens is not abduction.
Okay, I’ll change it. I didn’t mean to be invidious.
I have Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome (UARS) which was discovered in a sleep lab. This process was gruelling because I couldn’t sleep and it took several attempts to get a good result. The private lab was ok and not in a hospital but just a hassle. I have used a CPAP for years now. Without it I wake up and I have a more sore neck as my body tries to adjust to get air.
I was wondering about your test. “These are the days of miracle and wonder” – Paul Simon in 1985!!
People our age can appreciate the tech we have now very well. Your monitor (minus the throat thingie!) reminds me of my blood glucose “insert” in my arm which tells my phone my blood sugar and alerts. 24/7. A miracle.
Like sleep apnea, diabetes is a disease of the obese, which you and I are absolutely not! Feels unjust but as you know, genetics is a cruel random number machine.
Sleep tight – you’ll dream of missing a test/exam! 🙂
D.A.
NYC
I suppose the required test for sleep apnea is that there is an obligation to test for a condition that can have some serious outcomes down the road. Once that is cleared, then they can look into more likely reasons for your insomnia.
I have sleep apnea, and that was proven by in-clinic overnight tests. I don’t like wearing a C-pap mask, but with it I wake up feeling much more alert and rested. So I wear the damn thing.
Yay! It’s great to see the turtles making themselves at home.
Sleep apnea. I’m surprised that your sleep doctors hadn’t tested for that before. It’s cool that they can now test at home. Why wife had to spend a night in the clinic under conditions that were so un-natural that it’s surprising that the clinicians accepted the results so uncritically. I hope that you get some relief. But yes, anxiety can also be responsible.
Yes, I have two friends (a married couple) who were both diagnosed with sleep apnea, and they had no idea of it.
Good luck with the test. I’m familiar with people feeling they have been awake all night, yet they have slept in a fitful, shallow fashion because of sleep apnea.
And whilst on miscellanea, I’m reading the transcript of a Quillette podcast on the evolutionary purpose of the female orgasm. A couple of interesting things there, like peristaltic contractions of the uterus caused by oxytocin, sucking in sperm.
https://quillette.com/2025/11/01/what-is-the-evolutionary-purpose-of-female-orgasm-with-robert-king/
The nearest natural populations of turtles is hundreds of kilometers from where I live, so I look forward to seeing these Botany Pond turtles when the camera feed comes back online.
Yes good luck. The technology will confirm what you already know by what you have indicated. No ZZZZ!
Let’s hope they can sort it… the science behind insomnia by way of more data has to be good for understanding how to ameliorate and find future therapies.
Is there a WEIT post in that? The function of sleep?
MY fix it.
You won’t do this but a good jovial evening and I mean with good belly laughs, a little wine… and I know you won’t do THIS, smoke some weed (medicinal of course) and then roll off to bed. VERY low tech and a lot more fun!
Mind you I don’t need to use any encouragements, head goes down count 1,2,3, and gone.