sensor data question

no luck. I'm sorry, i am a very slow learner. I've set prevSensorValue to read analog values which i understand in your code isn that if prevSensorValue is different from currsensorValue (both are equal to analog ping pin), and the difference is greater then 5, (> bigChange which i set to 5), then, then= millis(). and below that statement, digitalWrite(led13, HIGH); and inverse for below. nothing aside from declaring then to equal millis and send a led high signal are my understand of what goes on there. hope I'm on the right track at least. I'm not having good results.

  prevSensorValue = analogRead(pingPin);
int currSensorValue = analogRead(pingPin);
   if((abs(currSensorValue - prevSensorValue)) > bigChange)
   {
      // a change occurred
      then = millis();

     digitalWrite(led13, HIGH);
     // Do something with the sensor data
   }

  now = millis();

  if(now - then > longTime)
  {
    digitalWrite(led13, LOW); // It's been a while since a change occurred
  }