Spending long days at work, especially after short nights at home, can be hard. It's not that I actually work that much because there are gaps in my schedule where I can eat, run errands or use the computer. But still I get sleepy periods and if I can't be distracted somehow I get drousy during my classes.
There were times at my previous teaching job when I would be nodding off while waiting for adult students to finish their sentences. Once I started to drift off while I was writing an example sentence on a piece of paper. It was so hard to keep that pen moving and the words coming out. At last I realized I had stopped writing a word and was about to just scrawl anything. I wondered how long I had been out. Was it just an instanteous blackout? It's always so embarrassing because I know the students are looking at me while I try to pretend nothing is wrong and hide my stifled yawns behind non-convincing hand movements before my mouth. One woman who actually was so boring looked shocked when she saw me stifle a yawn. I apologized and explained I didn't sleep well the previous night. Also hot classrooms when the sun is shining on the window and wall make me terribly sleepy.
So tonight I sat down with my last student, a very kind man in his early fifties, and within ten minutes I got a drousy attack. I did my best to keep the conversation going, asking him questions, correcting any mistakes in his replies. Then we started talking about thunder storms as one had passed last night. I was saying how thunder storms in Saitama were much more energetic and violent than the storms I knew from summers near Vancouver when, as I was speaking, I began to see a computer screen with a display - some kind of graph - and I was thinking to say something about that display. Then I caught myself.
"Storms in Saitama seem stronger and louder, with more lightning and..."
I realized I was looking him right in the eye and he was looking back at me. What was I just talking about? Storms right? Why did I want to talk about a computer screen? It took me a moment to trace my thoughts back and realize I had started to dream while I was staring, wide eyed and talking too. I did my best to recover and said that I had lost my thought. I think he noticed but what he actually saw I am not sure. Did my eyes roll up and go white? Did they cross as they do when I am fighting sleep? Did I pause too long? I can't say that I know and he didn't tell me. But I think that's the first time I started to fall asleep while talking with my eyes open.
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hotaka posted on Jul 05, 2008
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Comments
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fearing said on Jul 05, 2008....
Wow Hotaka! I've never heard of anyone talking in their sleep with their eyes still open. I bet you looked cute - eyes crossing and drool starting to come out of your mouth. lol! Sorry, I had to tease you. -
uniquely-ironic said on Jul 05, 2008....
that's some real talent Hotaka! I used to both sleep walk and sleep talk, but not lately. Both my kids do it too, but only at night ;) -
gingersoul said on Jul 05, 2008....
Hottiebabe.......jeez.......you need to go to bed right now......
Believe me, in these past 3 months i have became an expert in sleep deprivation.
I can't tell you how many times i've already caught myself dozing in front of the computer at work....
There are mornings when its just too damn hard keeping my eyes open and the focus going on...i seat there, headset on, during those early hours when everybody is seriously working and the room is quite silent......(it is so very rarely).....and there i am........my hands stop typing, my brain stops its daily activities and i am off.
I catch myself - after i dont know how many seconds - jumping back to awakeness with a rude jolt, my head nodding forward and i look immediately around to see if somebody had seen me.
Coffee after coffee usually don't solve the problem.....
But i never experienced talking while sleeping with my eyes open......you are a weird bird.......lol.....
And you and I need a serious sleep marathon........:-) -
skald said on Jul 05, 2008....
My granddaughter talks in her sleep and her eyes are wide open. She gets it from her mother who does it. Are you sure that you are not just very tired now? I hope your baby sleeps well at night. -
dailyachesandpains said on Jul 06, 2008....
WHOA Hottie!Sorry to hear how tired you are!I talk in my sleep WAAAAY too much. I feel so humiliated when I wake myself up talking...even when Mr. Daily is not next to me.Maybe you were just having a day dream of what you'd rather be doing???Daily -
queenparanoia said on Jul 06, 2008....
dude get some sleep!!! oh wow thank goodness he did get offended or something... do what i do when i feel sleepy... pinch yourself!!! lol... =) -
hotaka said on Jul 07, 2008....
fearing, har, har. No drool. I was still talking.
UI, I wasn't talking in my sleep. I was sleeping in my talk.
ginger, it's rather hot and humid around here these days which means that I don't sleep comfortably at night and wake up often. Though I can't complain too much because Mrs. Hotaka is in a hotter room with a baby that won't go to sleep until sunrise these days. I can imagine you nodding at the computer screen. I do it with books on the train.
skald, I am sure that I am very tired. But heat and humidity make me so. There was a post here maybe a year or two ago about sleep walking and talking in your sleep. There were some funny stories.
daily, I had probably been playing on SC too much and started dreaming about a computer screen, right? I sometimes catch myself talking in my sleep. I wake up when I hear my voice but there is no reply. Many years back I was sleeping next to an ex-ex-ex girlfriend and I was coughing. I didn't want to wake her but I couldn't help my coughing. Suddenly she said to me, "Oh, would you just shut up." I went to the living room and slept ont he sofa. The next morning I told her about it and she didn't remember at all. She had been talking in her sleep.
queenP, when I feel sleepy like that I need some kind of shock or sudden activity to wake me up. I think I might have looked funny pinching my cheeks while talking to the student.
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dailyachesandpains said on Jul 08, 2008....
hahaaaaaaaaaa! Classic! I love it!
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