The Sleep Lab

I remembered! HA!

*cough*

And what I mean by that, is I remembered what I thought I might be doing today... but I'm not... See, there is a Significant Other Blogfest and  SINCE that time, HWMNBMOI has forbidden me from ever mentioning him on the internet, so i CAN'T participate... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go check it out... (several of our buddies are participating)

Okay, back to the blog...

This thing my daughter is doing...

If you are impoverished in a University town, you might know this. There is money to be made as a research subject, and not all of it involves testing strange drugs (though I did that once)... For my job, I walk through the hospital now and again, because my boss has an office over there, and not for any other reason if I can avoid it, but about 5 years ago, we were feeling the CRUNCH. I'd recently changed jobs because the 'soft money' that paid me had run out, and though I'd been offered ALL THREE jobs I interviewed for, every one of them was a significant pay cut...

So at the hospital I saw this sign... sleep study, children 8-15... I had a 10 year old... It was time she started earning her keep! I took the tab and called... and we got hooked in with the sleep lab.

Not a Tartlet

(Note:  this is not my daughter -- >)

My daughter has to wear an 'actograph' for a week (which measures light and activity), keep an exact sleep schedule (she gets to set it, but it is the same weekends as week days, and THIS week, there was also MLKJ day, so she had 3 days she had to go to bed and get up as if it were a school day)... and then at the end (starting Wednesday night), we go into the sleep lab and they put little probes ALL OVER HER HEAD and watch her brain while she sleeps (which I think is very cool).

Because she is a minor, I have to go with her, but I don't mind. As a health system employee, last time I could log into their computers and do my Harry Potter geek thing I was doing when she was 10... I'm much more mature now *shifty* Seriously, though—There IS internet access (WiFi for my laptop) and I have plenty to EDIT... I am polishing, but am going to include a couple of the tricks ELIZABETH mentioned Tuesday in that polish... And I just finished Rock Walker, Jan's novel (it was fabulous!) and I'm reading Michael's ABNA excerpt, so I have plenty to keep me busy (even if I have to pout about the inappropriateness of nudity)...

feather comforter=YAYness

Besides THAT, the beds are super comfy... feather comforters three feet thick, feather pillows, comfy mattresses (on the soft side, which I prefer)

So what ABOUT Sleep?

I have a lot of friends with sleep issues—true insomniacs. And I know that goes with all SORTS of problems... the body needs sleep the heal, rejuvenate... PROCESS. I don't know how often I've gone to sleep with a problem floating around and woken up with at least a good shot at my answer... And how many book pieces come from weird dreams? I'd be a MESS with no sleep... at the very least, I'd be a raging biotch.

I've always slept pretty well—not too much trouble falling asleep, either the first time or consecutive... though I do sleep lightly and never sleep through the night (need a loo visit and a drink of water). As a kid I walked in my sleep now and again. My kids were both thrash-around sleepers when little, my daughter so much so that she used to fall out of bed a lot (something I also did, come to think of it). But my son is the really freaky one... or was... he used to sometimes call SCREAMING because he'd walked somewhere, woken up and didn't know where he was—he once fell into the toilet, even... totally asleep. I would try to talk to him and it was CLEAR he still wasn't awake, but he was SO UPSET. I think the last time he was five or six... and I think I did that once or twice with my sleepwalking too but without the upset thing because I didn't wake up (my mom would tell me of my strange behavior the next day), so maybe that is all me.

HWMNBMOI doesn't have any of THOSE things... he sometimes snores, but if I pretend to cuddle so exuberantly that I can get him to roll onto his side it will stop. He doesn't fall back to sleep well though, so DON'T wake him or you have an ogre on your hands for a week or so (yes, for one waking).

I can recite this

Sleep in Books...

I will just start with saying The SLEEP BOOK is the best book EVER... Okay, maybe not... but it is my second favorite Seuss and that is saying something.

But have you read books that focus on sleep issues? You'd think with as many weird life things it causes, you'd see more sleep issues in books. Of course my favorite horror movies focus on sleep... Nightmare on Elm Street—the original of that, at least is a GREAT premise.

Other than a couple MCs with insomnia though, I don't remember many books with heavy sleep focus... I wonder if we just don't perceive it as exciting enough...

Blog port written by her Tartness, Hart Johnson for her BLOG Confessions of a Watery Tart

Sleeping Guy
Comforter
Sleep Book *huggles*