Dr. Chen Is Writing a Paper About Rick

Dr. Chen has mentioned the paper possibility three times. The first was in passing, in May 2023: "You might be interested in a case study format for this data." I said I might be. We moved on.

The second was more specific, in November 2023: "I've been thinking about the longitudinal tracking data you have. There's a pattern in your HRV response to interventions that I don't see commonly in clinical presentation." He had his notepad out. He wrote something. He didn't show me what.

The third mention, January 2026: "I'd like to discuss the case study question more formally. Would you be open to a conversation about consent and scope?"

I said yes. We scheduled a conversation for February. I have not been deidentified in any publication as of this writing.

What the Paper Would Cover

Dr. Chen has described the scope as: a longitudinal case study of self-directed sleep intervention monitoring using consumer wearable technology over a 3+ year period, with comparison of subjective and objective outcome measures and assessment of intervention response patterns.

In translation: a paper about Rick tracking his sleep obsessively for three years, and what that data shows about what helps and what doesn't.

What I'm Doing

I am reviewing the consent materials. I have prepared a clean version of the dataset for review. I have also considered whether the act of preparing data for a medical paper about my insomnia will affect my anxiety about my insomnia, which will affect my insomnia data, which will be in the paper about my insomnia. I mentioned this to Dr. Chen. He wrote it down. I think it's going in the paper.