Sleep

Sleep is a strange thing. I had realized this for some time but it only fully hit me last night when I went to visit Matt at a sleep study where he works sometimes. He had taped over the names so I couldn't see them whenever I looked at the computer monitor where he was keeping track of so many different kinds of things: eye movements, leg movements, EKG, multiple types of brain waves, breathing, etc.

Matt explained what everything was and what the different kinds of lines meant and I could see the patterns of sleep emerging in the first patient by around 11 p.m. The second patient, on the other hand, was still awake by the time I left at 2 a.m. Patient 1 was complaining about sleep apnea and Patient 2 said he had insomnia, a fact he essentially proved to us in the time I was there as he laid awake in bed with the lights off for about an hour and a half before turning the light back on and reading.

I thought it was interesting to actually be able to trace things such as the onset of sleep (something that has always eluded my own half-assed investigations), how your breathing changes, how your heart rate slows and stabilizes, so many things like that.

It was fascinating. As was the company.