My Personal Self-Tonometry Setup

Someone recently asked me where I keep my tonometer. When I started self-tonometry, I kept my tonometer in my office in a convenient location so that I could check my intraocular pressure while working without getting up from my desk. I could check my IOP while talking on the phone or using the computer, for example. At that time stress was one of my main research focuses and work was my main source of stress. Eventually, I achieved excellent management of my intraocular pressure during the work day and I began looking at my diurnal IOP curve more closely.

My next task was to learn more about on my intraocular pressure while sleeping. For this phase I moved my tonometers into a spare bedroom in our house and I turned this room into what looks like a sleep laboratory now! As you see in the photo, I have also acquired a few more tonometers since I started!

How many tonometers do you see in the picture? There is a TonoPen Avia, a Tiolat iCare, a Pascal Dynamic Contour Tonometer mounted on a Marco slit lamp, a Goldmann tonometer, a Reichert Ocular Response Analyzer and outside the picture range there is a TonoPen XL and maybe a few others! On the right is the computer for the Ocular Response Analyzer. On the left is the computer used for EEG, EKG, GSR, HRV and other physiological monitoring.

This room is where my tonometers remain and my research focus is centered on learning about my intraocular pressure at its peak, which is while I am lying down in the early morning hours.

As a result of this research, I have indeed noticed improvement in my intraocular pressure at the critical times of day in the horizontal position. I am continuing to work on this. It is fascinating research for many reasons. The challenge level is significantly higher because I cannot use the intraocular pressure management tools I would use during the day (such as exercise) to manage my IOP. This work also takes me deeper into the connection between states of consciousness and intraocular pressure because there is often a brief gap between the sleeping state and the waking state where the fourth state of consciousness is naturally accessible.