Happy, Grumpy, Dopey, Sneezy, Bashful, and Dock!
How many seconds does it take you to figure out which one of the seven dwarfs is missing? I stole him and took him to my lab (that's your only clue!!) to join the rats. He fits right in...
It's Sleepy!! (ah, haha I crack myself up!)
I'm writing this post because it's the only way I can think of to dissipate some of the guilt I felt this morning when I went into the lab (yes, on a Sunday...). You see I'm doing this experiment that requires that I keep rats awake for a few days. It's not cruel like in the "olden days" (ie. the late 80's and early 90's) when they could keep animals awake until they died. Definitely doesn't match that caliber. But I still felt a little bit of guilt because I know what it means to be tired. I've had my fair share of lost sleep too, but I choose this. My cutie pies didn't have a choice. But they are happily sleeping now, and tomorrow when I give them a big kiss and hug, they will love me again, and they can get fat on raisins and nuts until the end of their days (which might unfortunately be sooner than later) And they were tired let me tell you. And it reminded me of a story.
When I was younger I was always interested in sleep. I think everyone is. Or maybe it was just me being a curious kid. I studied the lost city of Atlantis too, so that might be a hint as to my nerdiness from birth. Anyways, I would read the crock-of-sh*t dream dictionaries, and read watch documentaries on sleep. It's fascinating because we all do it, and there are still soo many sleep mysteries. Even to this day. And before I grew up and discovered the messed up properties of my own sleep, I was merely curious as to why Mama Dukes "made me" do it. I thought for sure it was just a ploy to get us out of her hair, and once my head hit the pillow, I was sure that's when all the excitement began.
So one night I'm hanging out with my mom's friend's son. His name is Josh, and he's over for a visit with his mom. He's spending the night. Jen and I were still sharing a room at this point, so I was pretty young. We had bunk beds and our bedroom window looked out onto the ground because we were in a first floor apartment. That night Josh and I decided to be rebellious and not sleep. We decided early on in the night. Before it got dark, and our eyelids got heavy. But we promised each other, so there was no backing down.
We pretended to sleep until the parents went to bed and then we got out the flashlight we had hid away earlier, and got busy. We made a make-shift stage out of books and such, and played with Alivin-and-the-chipmunks action figures I think we got from McDonalds or something. We might have wasted an hour. And that's when it started. The overwhelming tired feeling. When your eyes start to burn, and your eyelids droop a little lower. It actually becomes difficult to concentrate on anything other than sleeping. It's like your whole body needs to rest now, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. So we both felt it coming. We talked about it, and decided that if one of us closed our eyes for even one second too long, that the other one would poke them to wake up. We did this for what seemed like a lifetime. We turned the bedroom light on. We didn't care at this point that if our mothers were to wake up to use the washroom, we would surely get scolded. The light helped, for a while.
I remember talking for a long time. I think we must have spent the majority of the night describing how tired we were, and how awesome it was that we were pulling an all-nighter. We did it too. We looked out the window and saw the first bit of sunlight start to peek above the horizon, and we decided that was enough. We had done it! We stayed up all night!! It was probably only 5am, but it didn't matter. The sun was out, so it counted. So we were excited but disappointed. The last thing we talked about before falling asleep was how little happened during the night. Everyone was just sleeping the whole time!
Since then I have pulled several all-nighters, but it's never been that exciting ever again. Now it's to finish assignments or prepare work. Sometimes you just stay up talking with roommates or friends soo long you hardly notice the time passing and the sun coming up. But it never lasts long. Never more than 48 hours. It kills your brain too fast.
If I don't sleep enough now, my body steals it. I will continue writing or talking, but I'll definitely be asleep. Never for long, but just long enough to keep me going. My sentence is usually spoken or written incoherently, and when I wake up in the middle of it, I realize I just sounded ridiculous. There's no way to cover it up either. I just get embarrassed and admit it. Oh sorry...I was sleeping....
If anyone is interested...I'm looking for human volunteers for my own personal at-home experiment. It might involve sleep-deprivation as a method of interrogation...I'm not sure :)
It's Sleepy!! (ah, haha I crack myself up!)
I'm writing this post because it's the only way I can think of to dissipate some of the guilt I felt this morning when I went into the lab (yes, on a Sunday...). You see I'm doing this experiment that requires that I keep rats awake for a few days. It's not cruel like in the "olden days" (ie. the late 80's and early 90's) when they could keep animals awake until they died. Definitely doesn't match that caliber. But I still felt a little bit of guilt because I know what it means to be tired. I've had my fair share of lost sleep too, but I choose this. My cutie pies didn't have a choice. But they are happily sleeping now, and tomorrow when I give them a big kiss and hug, they will love me again, and they can get fat on raisins and nuts until the end of their days (which might unfortunately be sooner than later) And they were tired let me tell you. And it reminded me of a story.
When I was younger I was always interested in sleep. I think everyone is. Or maybe it was just me being a curious kid. I studied the lost city of Atlantis too, so that might be a hint as to my nerdiness from birth. Anyways, I would read the crock-of-sh*t dream dictionaries, and read watch documentaries on sleep. It's fascinating because we all do it, and there are still soo many sleep mysteries. Even to this day. And before I grew up and discovered the messed up properties of my own sleep, I was merely curious as to why Mama Dukes "made me" do it. I thought for sure it was just a ploy to get us out of her hair, and once my head hit the pillow, I was sure that's when all the excitement began.
So one night I'm hanging out with my mom's friend's son. His name is Josh, and he's over for a visit with his mom. He's spending the night. Jen and I were still sharing a room at this point, so I was pretty young. We had bunk beds and our bedroom window looked out onto the ground because we were in a first floor apartment. That night Josh and I decided to be rebellious and not sleep. We decided early on in the night. Before it got dark, and our eyelids got heavy. But we promised each other, so there was no backing down.
We pretended to sleep until the parents went to bed and then we got out the flashlight we had hid away earlier, and got busy. We made a make-shift stage out of books and such, and played with Alivin-and-the-chipmunks action figures I think we got from McDonalds or something. We might have wasted an hour. And that's when it started. The overwhelming tired feeling. When your eyes start to burn, and your eyelids droop a little lower. It actually becomes difficult to concentrate on anything other than sleeping. It's like your whole body needs to rest now, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. So we both felt it coming. We talked about it, and decided that if one of us closed our eyes for even one second too long, that the other one would poke them to wake up. We did this for what seemed like a lifetime. We turned the bedroom light on. We didn't care at this point that if our mothers were to wake up to use the washroom, we would surely get scolded. The light helped, for a while.
I remember talking for a long time. I think we must have spent the majority of the night describing how tired we were, and how awesome it was that we were pulling an all-nighter. We did it too. We looked out the window and saw the first bit of sunlight start to peek above the horizon, and we decided that was enough. We had done it! We stayed up all night!! It was probably only 5am, but it didn't matter. The sun was out, so it counted. So we were excited but disappointed. The last thing we talked about before falling asleep was how little happened during the night. Everyone was just sleeping the whole time!
Since then I have pulled several all-nighters, but it's never been that exciting ever again. Now it's to finish assignments or prepare work. Sometimes you just stay up talking with roommates or friends soo long you hardly notice the time passing and the sun coming up. But it never lasts long. Never more than 48 hours. It kills your brain too fast.
If I don't sleep enough now, my body steals it. I will continue writing or talking, but I'll definitely be asleep. Never for long, but just long enough to keep me going. My sentence is usually spoken or written incoherently, and when I wake up in the middle of it, I realize I just sounded ridiculous. There's no way to cover it up either. I just get embarrassed and admit it. Oh sorry...I was sleeping....
If anyone is interested...I'm looking for human volunteers for my own personal at-home experiment. It might involve sleep-deprivation as a method of interrogation...I'm not sure :)
posted by Aimee at 6:27 PM
2 Comments:
I just want to know how you keep the rats awake?
I had my staying awake fun when I tried to stay up for 72 hours and document my progress.
My realization was that none of my mental functions for short term actions decreased, it was only a problem when I tried to perform a task that required a longer attention span.
Post a Comment
<< Home