Sleep Study (polysomnogram)

Fathom

University of California Irvine Health. Light to deep sleep measured. During normal sleeping hours. 4 instruments used. Electroencephalography (EEG) for brain wave activity. Electrooculogram (EOG) for eye movement. Electromyography (EMG) for muscle movement. Electrocardiogram (ECG) for heart electrical activity. Study purpose varies. Examines sleep apnea (periods where the breath stops); Insomnia (inability to sleep); Narcolepsy (sudden onset of sleep); Restless legs syndrome (condition causing uncomfortable leg sensations); Nightmares during nondream stages of sleep (sleep terrors); Sleep walking; and excessive snoring. Great data sources. Potential undergraduate paper topics. Graduate research fields of study. Funding available. Perhaps a research topic for me? You? Ref: http://www.ucirvinehealth.org/health-library/content/?contentTypeID=92&contentID=P09032

Black Swan

Fathom wrote: »

Great data sources. Potential undergraduate paper topics. Graduate research fields of study. Funding available. Perhaps a research topic for me? You?

Not familiar with polysomnograms, but while surfing the web found apparently free secondary data sources for graduate research, or for scholars in the publish or perish mode (provided it relates to their discipline), called the National Sleep Research Resource. Wow, they invite you to explore "over 11,739 covariates across 9 public datasets." What a gold mine of secondary data for research in sleep and related sleep disorders.

Speedwell

As the nerd daughter of a woman with narcolepsy, I was fascinated by all that sort of thing and went along with my mother to her appointments. I had to do a project for my science class the year I was fourteen. The requirement was to either write ten essays on topics chosen by the teacher, or to write a proposal for a science fair project that, if approved, I would have to present. Too busy with extracurriculars to write ten essays, and not wanting to bother with a presentation, I wrote up a proposal for experimentation that started, "Take ten narcoleptics and ten controls...". The next year they explicitly banned human experimentation studies.

Black Swan

Speedwell wrote: »

As the nerd daughter of a woman with narcolepsy, I was fascinated by all that sort of thing and went along with my mother to her appointments.

I know a programmer that frequents our javahouse who sometimes just "switches off" while sitting at table with laptop. I know he pulls all-nighters given that his work is not 8-5, rather project-driven, where you work until you finish or drop. I've worked recent years on similar project-driven research teams, and thought he just might be taking a nap to catch up accordingly. I've napped like that, even once at our locale javahouse, coffee not working to keep me awake. But this programmer has done it a bit more often prompting me to ask him. It was then that he told me he was narcoleptic and that he skipping his meds. He also volunteered that when he had worked 8 to 5 jobs his supervisors used to rag on him about taking naps during working hours, so he shifted to project-driven work and all was fine.

Speedwell wrote: »

I wrote up a proposal for experimentation that started, "Take ten narcoleptics and ten controls...". The next year they explicitly banned human experimentation studies.

Interesting and ironic comment indeed Speedwell. Please do share more of your experiences on our Sleeping and Dreaming forum.

Speedwell

Black Swan wrote: »

Interesting and ironic comment indeed Speedwell. Please do share more of your experiences on our Sleeping and Dreaming forum.

Naah, I was just a smartarse dodging work There was no way that study was going to be approved for a science fair project and I knew it.

Black Swan

Speedwell wrote: »

Naah, I was just a smartarse dodging work There was no way that study was going to be approved for a science fair project and I knew it.

Not sure if you are into statistics and numbers crunching, but if someday you are looking for a graduate degree Sleep Study topic the National Sleep Research Resource database is brim full of variables and data for studies galore, and could support many studies for degrees, presentations, and publications.

Fathom

Speedwell wrote: »

I had to do a project for my science class the year I was fourteen. The requirement was to either write ten essays on topics chosen by the teacher, or to write a proposal for a science fair project that, if approved, I would have to present. Too busy with extracurriculars to write ten essays, and not wanting to bother with a presentation, I wrote up a proposal for experimentation that started, "Take ten narcoleptics and ten controls...". The next year they explicitly banned human experimentation studies.

Cool project. Too bad banned.

Black Swan wrote: »

Not sure if you are into statistics and numbers crunching, but if someday you are looking for a graduate degree Sleep Study topic the National Sleep Research Resource database is brim full of variables and data for studies galore, and could support many studies for degrees, presentations, and publications.

NSRR. Awesome site. Beats UCI.

Speedwell

Fathom wrote: »

Cool project. Too bad banned.

Actually, yeah, it would have been a cool study, because the actual experiment involved speaking to people with narcolepsy while they were having a narcoleptic attack, and seeing what they remembered once awake, and doing the same to people with normal sleep while they took a nap of equivalent length.

This was inspired by a habit my little brothers and I had of taking undue advantage of our mother's temporary incapacity and automatic behavior to ask her whether we could do something, and when she groaned something that sounded like "yes", claim she had given permission. Sometimes she remembered bits of what we had asked, and sometimes she didn't. Evil, I know.

I am pretty sure that at the age of fifteen I wouldn't have been cleared to experiment on human subjects even in a best-case scenario, lol.

Fathom

Speedwell wrote: »

Actually, yeah, it would have been a cool study, because the actual experiment involved speaking to people with narcolepsy while they were having a narcoleptic attack, and seeing what they remembered once awake, and doing the same to people with normal sleep while they took a nap of equivalent length.

Naturalistic study. Real world. Qualitative methods. Observation. Quasi-controls using non-Narcolepitic. Compare with narcoleptic. Cool!

Speedwell wrote: »

This was inspired by a habit my little brothers and me had of taking undue advantage of our mother's temporary incapacity and automatic behavior to ask her whether we could do something, and when she groaned something that sounded like "yes", claim she had given permission. Sometimes she remembered bits of what we had asked, and sometimes she didn't. Evil, I know.

You made me laugh! So cool! Thanks!

Fathom

Speedwell wrote: »

I am pretty sure that at the age of fifteen I wouldn't have been cleared to experiment on human subjects even in a best-case scenario, lol.

Different here. Gifted Students Academy. Summer. University of California Irvine. Math, science, language arts, social studies. Advanced coursework. Hook-up with faculty. Do your Sleep Study project. Faculty supervision. Compete later in science competitions. Middle School & High School.

Black Swan

Sleep-disordered breathing was a source of morbidity in children. Rather than have children ages 5 to 12 be polysomnogrammed for this condition while sleeping in a lab environment, a sleep study had been conducted with unattended children in their homes. James L. Goodwin, et al (2001) reported that 97% or 157 children had successfully conducted this unattended home sleep study, which surprised me, given their ages.

Fathom

Research & Education. Fellowship. Sleep medicine. Program trains bright and compassionate clinicians and researchers through a rigorous training program. UCLA.