Sleep and a Machine

Last week, perseverance rung true and my approval for a sleep machine came through.  I went to pick up my machine, which, thankfully, is not far from my work office.

The kind lady explained the machine to me. There was so much to absorb, how to put it all together, how to actually use it, and how to clean it.

I brought it home, excited that I will hopefully getting good sleep.

This whole device that you wear on your head, that, btw, has apparently come a long way, is not sexy.  Right now, they gave me these thing on my face, which is all 'nasal pillows'.  It's these huge rubber teardropped balls at the end of some vacuum cleaner looking hoses. These things shove up into your nose holes and strap around your head. 

To say there is an adjustment period, is putting it lightly.

Did i mention how not sexy this is?

My first night with the machine, I thought I was suffocating. Within an hour, i ripped the darn thing off my face, gasping for air. I made it a whopping hour. It also gave me a huge headache.

This wont do.   Luckily, I have an experienced coworker, to identified my problem...I had the thing on upside down.  It seems to be a common mistake.  Armed with new information, i strapped myself in for a second night. This time, i made it much longer, because i was so damn tired, I think i could have slept through a hurricane.  After 4 hours, i woke up to pee, and wrestled with it for about another hour, before i just plain gave up.

By wresting, I mean i was told to just pull it off when i needed to go to the bathroom and it wouldn't stop blowing. Quite the Contrary. It like a full on wind tunnel and of course, terrified the cats.  For the record, you can't put that damn thing back on with it blowing like that, hence the wrestling.       

Friday and Saturday i woke up about every hour on the hour, and my sleep was miserable. I was also worried about waking up my boyfriend, who told me i started snoring when i took it off.  I still only make it about 4 hours.

Friday, a sleep coach called me. To my surprised, they're home office is in, you guessed it, the sister city of Frustenfeldbruk...Wichita falls, tx.  Alright homegirl, explain this thing to me. She happily went over the fine details, which you can't really appreciate until you've strapped one of these suckers on your face.

They should, make them all look like the face hugger from Alien. I digress..

Last night, I finally fell asleep around 11:30pm.  I woke up at 4 am.  During the night, i do mess with it, as if it's just not right, i feel like suffocating.   I can't bring myself to put it back on for one hour of sleep. I really slept hard too, and felt pretty ok when i woke up.

When 5 am, I checked my data, which you can on an app that comes with it. To my surprise, it registered the worst night of sleep I'd had...reporting my average events an hour up to 4! Usually i have on 1-2.  This means, that I stop breathing for over 10 seconds before the machine senses this and kicks it up to force air.  This means the machine did it's job, and I apparently do have some sleep issues.

How do I feel? Out of it.  Of course, i only got about 5 hours of sleep. 

Today, my plan is to call the nice lady in the falls again, as she will send me out a smaller nose hole pillow thingie, and see if it's more comfortable.  However, at any given moment, you might find me asleep in my chair.

Off to find caffeine.   

Clear Skies on this long day.