When I would dialyze in a hospital, I would always hope that I would be able to sleep through most of the  session. When you sleep through, it is a great way to get rid of the time that it takes. It can be horribly boring otherwise. Many people suggested watching a movie or reading a book or ugh, working! These things never worked for me. The main reason for this was that the rate at which blood was being pulled out of my body, was being cleaned and was being returned made me feel like a small piece of cloth in a washing machine. It was as if I was being tossed and thrown around, squeezed and then twisted again and again.

Except that it wasn't! I just felt that way in the head. So, to watch a movie and all was impossible. I just never felt like doing anything. I would just hope the damn thing would finish soon. That is why, when I would sleep for at least  a 2-3 hours on the session, I would feel really good. That much less time to kill!

A perfect dialysis session in my opinion therefore is one where you can sleep through most of it. When I see someone asleep on dialysis, it feels really nice. I feel like making sure that there is absolutely no noise around so that this blissful state is not disturbed at all. Of course, many people not on dialysis do not realize the importance of this. So, they go about their daily chores without a care. They will shout out loud to their colleagues. They will wake the person up just to find out if he is feeling all right, not realizing that he was feeling good until they woke him up and now chances are that he will not feel as good as he was feeling!

My advice to anyone who is dealing with dialysis patients: if someone is sleeping on dialysis, unless you have a compelling reason to do so, DON'T WAKE HIM UP!