EEG Tech said I was asleep, I say I was not

I recently had an EEG. When the technician said it was done, I told her that I thought I was supposed to go to sleep and that I hadn't -- so how could the test be over??? She said I had slept. Is it possible for my brainwaves to look like I am sleeping when I am having conscious thought the whole time the test is happening? For instance, I had my eyes closed and was thinking about how cold it was in the room. It took everything I had not to move my hands underneath me to warm them up. Then, I was thinking that usually when I have an EEG done there is a comfortable bed -- not this hard table to lie on. My back was hurting. I couldn't believe she didn't offer me a blanket. I wondered if anyone can actually sleep without at least a sheet on them. I didn't know if I should interupt the test to ask for one. My lips were dry and I was telling myself over and over again, "lie still". I was wondering if swallowing and licking my lips would ruin the test. Usually the technician is in another room and this time she was in the same room and every time I felt my body twitch or move a little, I heard her typing on the computer or clicking the mouse and was thinking to myself, "how do they expect me to go to sleep when it is like this?" I really don't think I was in any form of sleep at all. Yet, when I got the results of the EEG it states that everything was normal during the sleep period of the test. Can a person have such concrete thoughts and be asleep? I am also wondering if the test was valid if indeed I am correct and she thought I was asleep and I was not.

Wow, that is very interesting to say the least.
This is what I do know of EEG machines
Sometimes called a brain wave test, the electroencephalography (EEG) cannot read minds or measure IQ! Here's how it works. The cells in the brain communicate by sending out tiny electrical impulses
Does that tell you anyting? not really
Are you famliar with Lucid dreaming?
During the process you may have been cought up in your thoughts that you described and indeed fell aseep. Because of the concious nature of your thought patterns you may have fallen directly into a Lucid dream. From what I understand registers on a machine that you are sleeping, but if you are lucid your thoughts would be as real as waking life.
This could be the reason you feel you were awake the entire time.

By the way - Welcome ejohnso225 :!:

If the tech said you were asleep, then she must have been picking up on alpha waves or some other indicator. I am thinking like Howetzer that you really were asleep and having what is called a False Awakening.

They are so realistic it is almost impossible to tell that you are really asleep.

You should have asked her these questions when you had the chance, lol.

If you're super relaxed, as I believe, then your brain can be in the alpha (or even delta) state.

Can someone explain what an EEG test consists of? Do you sleep the night there or what?

Hi everyone! Thanks for helping to answer my question. Now, of course, being a Newbie, and knowing only enough about sleep to be dangerous, and having a research background, I have more questions! Is it possible to be asleep, have a lucid dream, false awakening, exhibit the alpha and delta states you are speaking of even though you can not relax because you are so uncomfortable you can not stand it? (I am not very familiar with those terms, so that may be part of why I am asking the question) In my medical history, I have a problem with my temperature being 97.8 instead of the normal of 98.6 so, I am extremely sensitive to cold temperatures and usually can not sleep at night (even in the summer) without a comforter on. I wear gloves and a sweater in my parent's house and the temperature is set at 70 degrees. I also have severe back and neck problems, so sleeping in one position on my back without a pillow under my knees, without my chiropractic pillow and on a hard table seems impossible to me. I also have had a sleep test that said that I spent the vast majority of my night in stages one and two and only 25% of what is normal for stage 3 and only 7% of what is normal for stage 4. I will say though that since that test, I have had nose surgery to correct the turbinate hypertrophy and deviated septum that were found and am on medication for the severe Hyper Leg condition that I was diagnosed with. So, my stats may be better now. I still have problems with waking during sleep, due to my many medical conditions, but not as bad as it used to be. Since I have been having the seizure-like episodes, anytime my eyes are closed they move rapidly and it is like I am blinking with my eyes closed. Could this be mistaken for REM sleep? So, I guess I am back to my original questions, could I have been asleep and was the test valid?

To answer Lewis's question, an EEG consists of having electrodes hooked up to your head, they ask you to keep your eyes closed and hyperventilate for 3 minutes, they shine a strobe light in different patterns in your eyes while they are closed and then you are supposed to go to sleep and stay as still as possible and they measure your brain waves. There are several different EEG tests. The first one a doctor usually does lasts about an hour and a half to 2 hours and is done at a doctors office or hospital. This is what I just had done. My doctor said she had to order that one first because the insurance company requires her to do it. :wink: However, she said she did not expect to find anything on it and the real EEG she wanted to do is a 3 day test done in my home. She said that some types of seizures can only be detected if the machine is on you when you are having the seizure. So, I guess the insurance company has shot themselves in the foot because now they are paying for two tests instead of one.