Dozer – Sleep Study

Written by Woody :: [Friday, 29 March 2019 12:29] Last updated by :: [Friday, 29 March 2019 14:17]

Julie Torpor sat in the sleep specialist’s office. She had been lethargic for a while now and had drifted off at work multiple times. She sat nervously as she waited for Doctor Night, whom she thought had the perfect name for a sleep doctor.

“The Doctor will see you now Julie.” The receptionist said and Julie got up and walked into his office. Doctor Johnathon Night was in his early 40’s and young for a specialist. He was tall, had a full head of manicured black hair and warm brown eyes. He had the typical doctor’s office, desk in the middle with a bed to the side, behind was an impressive bookcase with books and Knick knacks, not least of which was a 16 inch 1984 Voltron. Next to it was a figure of Dozer. A Superheroine who had been around for a while now helping the citizens of Brisdale.

He perused the referral as Julie sat down. “Welcome Miss Torpor, why have you come to visit me today?” Julie started to describe her symptoms “I’m always tired no matter what I do or how much coffee I drink. My GP thought that you would be able to help me. I feel a pull then I fall asleep. Is that unusual”

The doctor gave Julie some standard tests to rule out some factors.

“Height – 167cm, 5 foot 6 inches in the old money.  Weight – 137 pounds, 62 kilos, Healthy range of a BMI. How often do you wear your glasses, Julie?”

“I’ll put it this way, I can read some things but I wouldn’t want to be driving without them”

“I wouldn’t want you driving if you fall asleep Julie” He joked. “There are a couple of tests we can do to confirm a diagnosis. One of these is a sleep study. There is also a vest that you will need to wear for a couple of days so we can measure certain physiological aspects, your heart rate, lung function, brain waves, etc.” he pulled it out to show Julie “as you can see it’s the height of fashion”

“Maybe in a medieval torture chamber” retorted Julie. Julie noticed the Dozer figure “I like the figures, Voltrons pretty cool in a retro sense. Do you like Dozer?” she asked as she gestured at the figurine

“Actually she saved me once a while ago. I was trapped in our old offices in a burning building. The kitchen in the restaurant below had gone up trapping us. She got me and my staff out before the whole building caught alight. My Daughter gave this to me to help remind me that she is her hero for saving her Dad.”

“She is an awesome role model for the young girls in the city, and the older ones as well” Julie jumped in

“Have you met her yourself?” Dr. Night asked.

“Sadly no. One day hopefully I will, hopefully without the need for being saved” Julie lamented.

 “Anyway back to the 'fashion' vest over here.” he said with quotation marks “You will need to wear this for two days consistently. On the second night, you’ll come in here for a night for observation. Maybe take a couple of days off work. We’ll book you in for three weeks”

“It’ll be nice to know what’s wrong,” Julie said.

“It’s always better knowing” concurred Dr. Night.

Three weeks later Julie arrived back at Doctor Nights and was fitted with the sensor vest. “There are more wires poking out of this thing than in the box of miscellaneous cables that everyone seems to have lying around” commented Julie.

“Alright Julie, how this works is that there’s a battery compartment right here with a data box,” he said as he touched the front of the vest. “Just go about your normal routine, should you fall asleep the box will monitor your vitals and the like to help with the diagnosis. Is the vest comfortable?”

“Vest, yes that’s comfortable, these wires hanging out the sides of it plastered to my head, on the other hand, aren’t. I can live with it I’m not looking forward to sleeping in it, I’m glad I’m not going to work tomorrow.” Julie replied.

“I assure you it’s only temporary; tomorrow night we’ll hook you up through the vest to a machine here at the center and monitor you remotely”

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” said Julie as she walked out.

Three hours later around dusk, Julie was sitting at home in the vest when she felt a familiar pull. She was getting tired. “I hope this thing works,” she said as she stumbled into bed and fell asleep

As she fell asleep she unconsciously mumbles something. Her unconscious body starts to float. A small bead of light appears above her and starts to spin around her. The light travels to her feet and as the light moves up her body boots magically appear. The light continues and her clothes and the sleep vest change with each spin and a red and white suit is revealed. All the wires disappeared as the light changes her glasses into a red mask and she spins upright. With a final burst of light, Julie transforms into Dozer

Dozer looks up and focuses. With her advanced hearing, she had detected the alarm being tripped in the Brisdale Bank main vault. She takes off and looks at the bank when she arrives. It had closed an hour earlier and the tellers and patrons had left for the day. She scanned for forced signs of entry, however, the historical bank had not obvious markings of such an entry. “Something’s not right,” she thought as she looked up.

There was a light on the third floor. “Must be the manager?” she thought and flew up to the window. Sure enough, there was a man sitting at his desk. She lightly tapped the window and he jumped 3 feet in the air. The relief on his face was obvious when he realized it was Dozer and he opened the old windows. Dozer gracefully glided in horizontally to fit then stood upright, inadvertently blowing some papers off the table in the process. As she picked them up and put them back on the desk she started talking “Sorry about that. What’s happening? Are you ok?”

“I’m fine” the manager replied still in some shock. “I was sitting at my desk finishing loan applications when the alarm got tripped. I locked the door and stayed here. I figured it was the safest place and hoped they were going for the vault”. “Stay here and I’ll check it out,” said Dozer “Where’s the vault?”

“Sub-basement level two Dozer” directed the manager. With that Dozer went to the vault. She noticed a hand scanner had been activated and the safe wide open. Dozer sped to the open vault careful not to disrupt the money inside the vault. There wasn’t a scratch on it and the thieves weren’t armed at all. “Why isn’t this adding up?” thought Dozer. They were emptying out the safety deposit boxes into hessian sacks. “Told you the boss would sort us out,” said one guy directing the others “we have 3 minutes to get what we came here for”

“This is too easy,” she said quietly “I’m missing something.” She then though back the last 5 minutes. “Of course, how come I didn’t see that sooner” Dozer realized as she scanned then vault. There were no other openings. She sped to the other side of the vault door and started to shut it, with the thieves still inside. There was audible screaming as the vault closed but Dozer and her speed had the vault shut before they escaped. She then raced up to the main auditorium where she found the manager about to hit the elevator to the parking lot.

“Did you catch the thieves?” asked the manager.

“Well most of them, but one tried to run,” said Dozer.

“Did you catch him?” asked the Manager. Dozer put a hand on his shoulder. “I did now”.

The manager looked up in horror at the remark. “W, W, What do you mean, now?” he stammered

“It’s a great plan, really, well done. Send a group of thieves down to a vault as a distraction. You know about the silent alarm but don’t tell them to get them caught. Meanwhile, you stash the bank bonds in the suitcase and walk out without anyone being the wiser. After all, you always carry a briefcase don’t you” Dozer then hit the suitcase and it spilled the bank's bonds over the ground.

He turned and ran but he only managed a single step. After that, his legs started cycling in mid-air. Dozer had lifted him up off the ground. Just then Sirens started to be heard and the police showed up. Dozer, casual as you like hovered out to meet them with the manager still dangling.

“The rest are in the vault,” said Dozer to the police as she unceremoniously dropped the manager. She then turned to face him “The pin to open it if you would be so kind”

“19125516” He reluctantly gave them after some not so subtle persuasion from Dozer.

Knowing they had the thieves cornered, they waited 2 hours and when the police reopened the vault they found four petrified thieves thinking they were going to die of a lack of oxygen and screaming for their leader the manager.

After handing over the manager Dozer returned to Julie’s room and said something. The light returned and circled Dozer. As the light spun around her the mask changed back into her glasses, Dozer’s uniform changed back and the clothes, wires and the sleep vest reappear. The change complete, Julie wakes up and checks the clock. She had been out for over an hour. “Well I hoped this picked up something,” she said yawning.

Over the next 24 hours, Julie had two more bouts of sleep. She relayed the information to Doctor Night as she prepared for the overnight stay. “That should give us some really good data Julie. Now I’m sorry this is uncomfortable, but try and get some sleep tonight, there are a TV and Netflix in the room and an ensuite as well.” Fortunately, the cables all tie into your vest so you’re not going to add any more cables to you.”

For Julie, the night passed without incident and two weeks later Julie arrived back at Doctor Nights for the results of her sleep study.

“Julie I have enough data to confirm you have Narcolepsy. It’s a sleeping disorder when you can fall asleep at any time.” He turned to his computer and opened up some graphs.

“As you can see when you are awake your movements are pretty normal but when you sleep there is a lack of activity.” He then pointed to one section about 3 hours in. The graph showed a massive spike then nothing for about an hour.

“This spike is curious though Julie. In my years as a specialist, I’ve never seen a spike like this. From what I can ascertain it looks like the vest malfunctioned at the start of your first sleep pattern. Fortunately, it captured your remaining episodes, none of which has the spike.”

Julie then looked at a similar spike that occurred later in the graph. “What’s this one?”

“When you were here there was a power surge that killed the power. We’ve put the spike down to that as the times collaborate. We’ve checked the video but again it faltered during the blackout. All we saw was you sleeping”

“Well what do I do now, is there a cure?”

“Unfortunately not,” said Doctor Night. “We can give you stimulants to help with the symptoms though. We’ll liaise with your workplace to get what you need. The pull you feel to sleep is another rare phenomenon with Narcolepsy. It generally doesn’t happen like that but you can use it to get yourself into a safe place to avoid injury”

“Thanks, Doctor Night,” Julie said as she picked up her bag

“One thing” interrupted Doctor Night “the reason for the blackout was we had some men cut the power to try and take prescriptions and the days' takings. Dozer came, apprehended the men and saved the day. You could say Dozer saved you without knowing it”

“She was here and I was sleeping the entire time! She was so close and I didn’t see her! If this happens again to tell her to wake me up please.” Said Julie, and she turned and left the office.

As she left the building she said to herself “One day I’ll meet you Dozer. One day”