Hence, I give you this fun (but perhaps not so funny, if you struggle with fatigue) collage of images of public sleepiness with my own particular commentary. Why? I would rather lose my ability to walk than my ability to laugh.
From the Dose: 15 People Who Just Needed a Nap
For this to work, just click on the link to see the images, then follow along with my comments below.
1. I have slept in grocery stores. Not quite like this. I usually find the private area in the back by the pharmacy and pull up a chair, pull my hood over my head. I remember it took so much energy for me to walk from the car to the store that I immediately napped before I even started shopping.
I have also slept in those overstuffed chairs at the mall. And whoever decided these were a good idea deserves eternity in nirvana.
A word about those handicapped parking places. They aren't reserved only for the elderly. Many MSers are quite young and do not show outward signs of their disease (I am middle aged, but still, you wouldn't know it to look at me). I know many young people who use these parking spaces legitimately because they have even worse fatigue problems than I do, and they get treated like common criminals almost entirely by elderly people who don't even use these spaces. Stop it already with the reverse ageism. Rant over.
2. I had a 2-hour drive down the I-5 corridor one afternoon and, halfway down, I pulled over at a casino, parked in the way back and napped until some guy (not security) knocked on my car window and scared the holy shit outta me. Oh, and I have pulled over in traffic on the Kennedy expressway in Chicago during afternoon commuter hour and napped as my car was buffeted by semis speeding past at seventy plus. The need to sleep can be that irresistible.
3. I have fallen asleep in yoga classes, but only in the corpse position. And snored. I am not ashamed.
4. I have yet to fall asleep on the job during my overnight shifts, but that is because I take modafinil. However, I used to faceplant, asleep, into my laptop during live Skype teleconferences in which I was actively engaged. In fact, that was why I finally saw a doctor. I realized, "This can't just be the life of a working mom."
5 and 6. I have not hidden inside a box to sleep. I might have slept in a fruit crate as a baby, not that I think about it. But that was my crib while camping.
7. I do not recall ever falling asleep in class except on two occasions: I was at a sleep conference (ironically) and the ballroom we were in was overly warm and too dark and all the coffee in the world
was not keeping any of us awake. The second time, I was (also ironically) taking my sleep health educator's credentialing exam (a 450-dollar test) and, as I was going back over my answers upon completion of the test, I kept falling into what are known as "microsleeps." Yes, that's right. I fell asleep during my sleep educator's exam. And yes, that's right. I passed.
8. Who hasn't slept while using public transportation? Trains, planes, ferries, automobiles. Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
9 and 10. See #4 anecdotes.
11. This girl would never fall asleep in any place where food would be readily available and deliverable.
12. Of course. Who hasn't slept in a park? Don't be suspicious, it was during the day, I was on a blanket and I did not use any floating newspapers as a comforter.
13. This is why I don't go the library. Either I fall asleep in the carrels or the noise of other people (their damn cell phones, their damn kids or the general urban hooliganism at the city branch) keeps me from getting my work done. Either way, it's never a productive visit except for the act of selecting media.
14. That is just too adorable. That is all I have to say on that matter.
15. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to do this. Still, I am impressed.
