Last night we did my yearly sleep study. This one was ordered by Dr. Aljadeff in pulmonology due to sleep apnea issues. I slept for about two hours, so it was more of a “rest study” for me. Normal EEG was being run along with other sensing instruments, some of which are described below. The main reason I didn’t sleep well was two little sensors in my nostrils that were really bothersome. Those sensors are shown below.

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On the left you see the Pro-Tech ETCO2 cannula / snore sensor. This cannula has to be connected to a special sensing box made by the Pro-Tech company, and does not offer any airflow to the patient. On the right you see is called a thermal airflow sensor, it relies on sensing the temperature of the air from my body, this sensor can tell them when I am breathing through my nose only, my mouth, or both simultaneously. The mouth piece was not as irritating as the two prongs up my nose. These two sensors really made breathing difficult for me but I made it through.

The Pro-Tech Piezoelectric Respiratory Effort sensor is embedded into the fabric of a belt made of a very stretchy material. There are usually two sensors, one on the chest and one closer to the belly. Both were quite snug for proper sensing and the material got warm after a little bit. If it were not for those horrible nose sensors, I would have fallen asleep pretty quickly with how good these sensors felt. Ironically the technician said the nose sensors, and the chest sensors are among the most uncomfortable sensors. She was definitely correct about the nose sensors, but I wanted to take the chest sensors home with me.