Hi, I'm Kayte,
and soon I’ll be spending the night at the sleep lab
so my doctors can watch me sleep.
It’s so they can help me sleep better when I’m at home.
It’ll be at a place called the Vanderbilt Sleep Disorders Center.
Maybe you’ll be doing a sleep study soon, too.
If you are, here’s how you can get ready.
Vanderbilt Health actually has three sleep centers.
If the person bringing you isn’t sure about how to get there or where to park,
they can call 615-343-5888 for help.
The night before my study, I’m going to try to get a good night’s sleep
and you should too.
I can’t have any drinks with caffeine – like soda – after lunchtime the day before my study.
And I’m also not taking a nap, just so I’ll be extra sleepy when I get to the sleep center.
Only one adult can stay with me during the study, and my brothers and sisters have to stay home.
I’m going to bring all the important stuff I need to stay overnight
and anything else I need at night when I'm at home,
you can take a few things too.
I’ll eat dinner at home before I go, since they don’t have any food there.
I’ll get to the sleep center at about 7pm
We’ll go straight to the check-in desk where the adult with me has to sign some papers.
Then, a person from the sleep center, called a “tech”
will show me my room for the night and talk with me about my study.
My caregiver gets to stay with me in my room
and there’s a bathroom and TV just for us!
The sleep center people will be in another room while I sleep.
They’ll stay awake ALL NIGHT in case I need anything.
At my normal bedtime, my tech will help me get ready for the study.
There are a bunch of wires they have to put on me with stickers
and it’ll take awhile – like 30 or 40 minutes.
My job is to sit very still.
This will help the sleep tech do their best work.
The wires will go on my head, my face, my chest and my even my legs.
There will also be something on my finger and a tube, under my nose.
It’s probably going to tickle but it won’t hurt.
There’s so many wires
when I’m all connected, I might look like a robot!
It’ll probably feel a little funny.
Then, we’ll have to turn off our phones and stuff, and I can FINALLY go to sleep.
A camera will record how I’m moving in my sleep.
If a wire comes off.
My Tech will put it back on for me.
without waking me up.
in the morning , we’ll be getting up early since we have to leave by 7am.
They’ll have to take all those wires back off.
It’s probably going to feel sticky – good thing we’ll have a shower in our room to clean up.
My doctor will go over all the information they got from those wires.
She will let my caregiver know what happened in about three weeks.
And that’s it!
I’m going to try hard to have a good sleep study and I hope you will too!