I do. I’ve had problems sleeping for years and finally decided to do something about it. I visited a Doctor last week and was sent to a sleep clinic. They put sensors all over my body and monitored me for a night. It was something different to say the least.

My results didn’t show any major problems like sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome, so that’s good. I guess. It’s tough not knowing the exact reason why I have trouble sleeping. According to the sleep study my sleep efficiency is only 67%, which means for the total time I spend in bed, I’m only sleeping 2/3 of the time. When I do fall asleep my sleep stage distribution is “grossly normal” according to the report. I basically have a hard time getting to sleep and then I wake up several times throughout the night for extended periods of time.

Lids down, I count sheep

I count heartbeats

The only thing that counts is

that I won’t sleep

I countdown, I look around

Barenaked Ladies – Who Needs Sleep?

After going back to the Doctor this week he has put me on Ambien CR for 3 weeks and then wants me to sleep for a week without it. I’ll visit him again and tell him how I slept when I was off the drug. From what he explained we are trying to “reprogram” my brain for sleeping habits. It makes sense, but I’m not holding my breath that it’ll work. The first night on the sleeping pill I fell asleep much faster at about 10 minutes, but I still woke up at 4:30 and once or twice more after that. Last night I couldn’t get to sleep again and woke up several times throughout the night. I’ll give it through the weekend, but if my sleeping doesn’t improve on the drug by then I’ll have to ask, “What’s up Doc?”