Sleepless Nights Rewarded: Bostonist Does a Paid Sleep Study

One thing Bostonist needs more of is money - with $130,000 in law school debt and a day job that, while we love it, doesn't pay as well as we'd like (stupid public sector!), we're always looking for ways to make a quick buck. As luck would have it, we've also always been something of an insomniac. We're forever filled with envy by people who fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow, and can't help but wonder "why not us?" And living in the center of a bustling city just doesn't help - the jackhammers, delivery trucks with that annoying back-up beeping, and constant buzzing sound just outside our window aren't nearly as soothing as quietude of our Western Mass. childhood. So when we saw an ad on Craigslist for one of those ubiquitous sleep studies, we were quick to call for details. For $200 a night, all we would have to do was ingest a trial sleep drug, stay at a quiet sleep center in beautiful Newton for 10 hours, have a few electrodes attached to our head, and try not to mind the camera that would be just above our head all night. Get paid to take drugs, sleep in someone else's bed, and not have to put out, all while getting to be on TV? Bostonist was ready to get on board.

Our first night there was for screening purposes only, so they just glued some electrodes to our head, making us one big walking bundle of wires. Needless to say, someone who's an insomniac to begin with isn't going to rest easy in a strange place, without sleep medication, and with electrodes all over her head and face. But one sleepless night later, Bostonist was on our way to the bank to deposit $200. Not sleeping was never so much fun!

On the phone later that day to see if we qualified for the study, Bostonist made it a point to note that we didn't sleep at all. Creepily, the director of the study just said, "yeah, we know," giving us a friendly reminder that some unknown technician was paying close attention as we tossed and turned in bed all night. The lack of sleep, however, allowed us to qualify for the study, so the next week, this time with meds, Bostonist spent another sleepless night at the clinic, followed by one night where we did manage to sleep, probably due to the lack of sleep the night before. We netted a cool $400, but were quite convinced that we were receiving a placebo.

The following week, Bostonist spent two more nights at the clinic, sleeping like normal (which is to say, it took us about an hour to fall asleep, and we woke up numerous times during the night). We took the medication approximately a half-hour before bedtime, and just before we were told to turn off the light, our body started feeling heavy, and we thought (optimistically) that we just might be receiving a real drug. But the lack of better sleep was perplexing, and we think we might just be immune to whatever sleep aid we were given.

No matter - we'll skip the drug when it's finally FDA approved, take the $2000 we will have earned when we finish the study, and go buy some Ambien (which we'll take on the plane to Vegas, where we're really going to spend the money).

Contributed by Lonna Steinberg