You Know Your Tired When...

[MoochNNoodles]

Am I the only one who does really silly stuff when your tired?

I only got about 3 hours of sleep last night thanks to the book I was reading. I finished and looked up and jumped because there was blue light coming in the back door!! No wonder Mooch had been giving me looks. I think she was waiting to have the couch to herself.

I've done funny things when my kids were babies. Like trying to put the cap to the milk on a sippy cup. I've fallen asleep standing in the shower. I've tried to put the milk in a cabinet instead of the refrigerator. Things like that. Once during a software change at work I was having to manually enter ALL of our clients in the new database. I found myself walking around spelling names. I did that in my sleep too. I've slapped conditioner on my face. I'm really not a morning person. Can you tell?

But today I made myself laugh. I usually write notes down during church so if they mention a scripture I'll jot the reference down. It helps me focus. So today it was something from the book of Hebrews and I started to write Eagles. I'm not a football fan. I haven't seen an eagle anywhere; bird or athlete, so I have no idea where my brain pulled that from. Maybe I was starting to drift/doze??

Please tell me I'm not the only one.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I went through a "narcoleptic phase" in college where no matter how hard I tried, I could not stay awake in classes. I'd be taking notes and I'd just drift off. I'd wake up with names in my notebook that I had written as I was asleep. (This makes more sense if you know that I am a huge nerd about baby names.) There have also been times when I was so sleep deprived that I started to hallucinate. My mom has narcolepsy and she says when she's not quite awake she hallucinates too and she's never completely sure if something she is seeing is really there, like a person in her bedroom.

 

[Mother Dragon]

We worked nights. Once in a very great while, we'd get four days off in a row. Gas was relatively cheap then and we were driving an old 1969 VW camper.

On a whim, we decided to make a 4-day trip to Disney World, about 1200 miles away. If we drove straight through, we'd have at least two days to enjoy the park. Off we went as soon as we got off and loaded our clothes and our daughter.

I always do the driving because Robert can't stay awake more than an hour. We were in Louisiana, on the very long Atchafalaya bridge, which is more of an elevated road through the swamp. I thought I was doing fine when I suddenly saw a huge green dragon right in the road. He was so big he was blocking both lanes. I braked hard enough to wake Robert and our daughter. Of course, as I hit the brakes the dragon vanished.

I felt too stupid to tell them I was trying to avoid hitting a dragon. I suspect I had dozed, but on the other hand there are some very strange things in that swamp...

 

[MoochNNoodles]

My mom has narcolepsy and she says when she's not quite awake she hallucinates too and she's never completely sure if something she is seeing is really there, like a person in her bedroom.

I try not to fall asleep on the couch in the evenings anymore. I can't tell you how many times I've jumped up off the couch because someone or something is coming in my front door! Sometimes the door is open and fog is rolling in. That doesn't happen in my bed. I've always figured it's because I'm so tired but not in a good sleeping environment with the lights and tv on. Cats moving. etc. Jumping up and dashing for the door is not my idea of good rest anyway!

We worked nights. Once in a very great while, we'd get four days off in a row. Gas was relatively cheap then and we were driving an old 1969 VW camper.

On a whim, we decided to make a 4-day trip to Disney World, about 1200 miles away. If we drove straight through, we'd have at least two days to enjoy the park. Off we went as soon as we got off and loaded our clothes and our daughter.

I always do the driving because Robert can't stay awake more than an hour. We were in Louisiana, on the very long Atchafalaya bridge, which is more of an elevated road through the swamp. I thought I was doing fine when I suddenly saw a huge green dragon right in the road. He was so big he was blocking both lanes. I braked hard enough to wake Robert and our daughter. Of course, as I hit the brakes the dragon vanished.

I felt too stupid to tell them I was trying to avoid hitting a dragon. I suspect I had dozed, but on the other hand there are some very strange things in that swamp...

Gosh that's scary! I always fall asleep on our trips so DH does all the driving most of the time. Usually I stay up the night before packing and cleaning so the house is presentable for our house/pet sitter. So DH gets a good rest and drives! Thankfully when I do drive I've never had that issue. I don't really like driving that much anyway. Especially not around any big cities. I've done it; but I don't like it!

I'm practically counting the minutes till I can feed the girls their last meal and go to bed.

 

[Winchester]

I had just finished a week of first shift. That Saturday morning, I awakened at 5:00, dragged my sorry butt out of bed, got in the shower, dried my hair, and got ready for work. I got dressed and walked in to the bedroom. Rick woke up, looked at me, and said, "What are you doing" I told him I was getting ready for work. He shook his head and said, "Go back to bed, Pam. It's Saturday!" Well, crap. I stood there mentally banging my head against the wall. Stripped back down, went back to bed, and was sound asleep in a minute.

Since I worked a swing-shift, I never know what time of day it was, let alone what day it was. In the winter, when it got dark so early, I'd awaken at 6:00 and lie there, thinking, "OK, is it 6:00 in the morning or 6:00 at night?"

And then there was the time I fell asleep during a mapping lab at school. The prof came in and there I was, sound asleep with my face on the keyboard. She didn't get angry, she knew I had worked all night and she was glad I even made it to class.

And let's not forget my first (and last) professional hockey game. Amidst all the yelling and screaming and the music and all the noise.....there I was wrapped up in my winter coat, napping away. They thought they'd better wake me up when I started to snore. To this day, I don't remember a thing about that hockey game.

Working a swing-shift, going to classes, trying to be a wife and a mother, not to mention, chief cook and bottle washer, was exhausting. I never knew if I was coming or going. Under my eyes were bags on top of bags.

I don't think I've ever completely recovered from it.

 

[cassiopea]

I can be pretty dopey when I am tired too It's like my brain goes "Nah" and floats away out of my head to settle in Tahiti for a bit.


Forgetting how to drink and spilling all over myself, taking a little longer to process things, putting random items in the wrong spot etc

 

[Columbine]

I'm always running on empty thanks to a collection of chronic illnesses, many of which list fatigue as one of their symptoms. Here are some of my 'moments'

• Trying to put the (freshly boiled) kettle away in the fridge
• Going to put a fresh-out-the-oven cake on the counter...but missing by a good foot (thankfully mum caught me before I let go). Same thing with full cups of tea/coffee too
• Staring at my computer/tablet/phone screen, trying to work out how to use it
• Forgetting how to spell (including writing nonsense) names and words...or substituting a totally unrelated word
• Going to make tea without the teabag (or coffee without the coffee)
• Walking into doors/walls
• 'Losing' my glasses because I'm wearing them (or same for harclips/hair bobbles)
• Giving the dog the cat's supplements/food
• Losing words mid sentence (like battery or screwdriver or light bulb)
• Going out and leaving the keys in the door (or even the door wide open a couple of times )
• Leaving the stables, then getting a phone call asking if I meant to leave my horse's stable door unlocked (thankfully, she'd stayed put)
• Buying things (household/kitchen goods like cleaners or flour) two or three times over because I'd forgotten I'd just bought them
• Dropping things (including the iron on a number of occasions) because my grip suddenly fails
• Taking meds/supplements twice (or skipping a dose) because I can't remember if I've just taken them

There are many, MANY others.....but I can't remember them right now

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Winchester - I fell asleep in the 2nd row of a Fred Hammond concert when I was a teenager. It was the culmination of a nearly week long youth camp and I've never been a big gospel fan. I got clobbered in the head when they were tossing t-shirts out before the concert started and I was "done" with it all. I'm way too introverted for all that mess! Now as an adult I'm just like:

.

It's like my brain goes "Nah" and floats away out of my head to settle in Tahiti for a bit.

That is the best description I've heard. Soooo accurate. I just wish it would take me along too.

Columbine I've caught myself nearly doing the forgetting the coffee thing too. Once I forgot to put my mug under the coffee maker. Good thing I was only brewing a small cup that time and not my normal giant mug.

When the kids were babies I would let myself sleep till a decent time as long as they were asleep. DH would settle them back down if they got up when he was up getting ready for work once they didn't need to eat around the clock anymore. But before that; I know I said things to him that were not nice but I don't not specifically remember. We would sometimes have a conversation but he'd also leave a note because he knew I wouldn't remember it.

 

[catlover73]

No you are not. I was so tired one day after work due to lack of sleep the night before that I accidentally washed my hair with body wash. My body wash is not in the sample place as my shampoo/conditioner. The bottles do not look the same. I realized what I had done when I had way more suds in my hair than normal. My short shower ended up being much longer. I did actually wash my hair correctly once I got the body wash out of it. After this I sent my hubby a text saying that I was going to sleep and to wake me up when dinner was ready. He was tired to so he went and picked up dinner and woke me up to eat. After dinner he fixed the bedding for me. He hung out in bed watching tv with me until I went back to sleep. He also took care of making sure my cell phone got charged and my alarm clock got turned back on so I woke up on time for work the next day. I would have had a bad day the next day if he had not noticed that I had left my cell phone on the coffee table down stairs and I had not turned my alarm back on.

I could not sleep last night so this morning I tried to sleep through my alarm. Hubby woke me up so I would not be late for work. I am dependable enough for work though that if I had slept through my alarm and ran late that my boss would have worried something was wrong with me more than being mad that I was late. My boss that I work with on Sunday is used to me showing up early she probably would have called to check on me before I had actually been late

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Aw that's a sweet husband you've got catlover73 ! DH and I are opposites when it comes to being morning/night people. He's good about waking me up gently when he has to and leaving me alone when he doesn't! Except a few weeks ago when he thought waving my coffee under my nose was a good way to wake me. It worked but I moved to quickly and it sloshed on me and the bed.

 

[fhicat]

Once I was going to take the trash out. My brain was pre-occupied with a problem I've been ruminating on for quite a while. I decided I needed a break, so I figured I'd take the trash out.

I took the trash bag, walked to my car, put the trash bag in the trunk, drove all the way to where I work, pulled into the parking lot (still in my lounge pants), and then I asked myself aloud, "Wait, why am I here??"

I've been helping out a friend whose dad lost his house in a fire, so I've been bringing her bags of goodies to help out. So when the trash bag went into the trunk, my brain did not register that as "strange".

 

[bodester413]

If I go grocery shopping while I'm tired it's almost guaranteed stuff will end up where it shouldn't be when I get home. The other day a block of cheese ended up in the cupboard next to the coffee grinder and a bottle of ibuprofen ended up in the refrigerator door. I'll also feed Bodhi and there will be a can in the fridge with a small amount left so I'll open a new one....use the stuff from the fridge....add some from the new can and end up putting the lid on the empty can and put it back in the fridge and throw the new one in the trash....lol.....I can't tell you how many times I've done that. Hours later I'll go to feed him again and find the empty can in the fridge....and think shouldn't there be some left in here?....lol

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Mooch and Noodles always get fed last thing before I go to bed because they like when the house is quiet and Mooch needs an hour between meds and her food. They also get breakfast after the kids are done. Thats a leftover habit from the kids younger days. But that late night feeding; sometimes it's hard on-da-brain if I doze off on the couch first. It's like walking through mud or something. Mooch has to have her mirilax first. Then i can serve food. Then oops I didn't scoop the litter boxes or brush my teeth yet either. Sometimes by the time I'm done I am too awake to go back to sleep.

 

[Winchester]

When I was working a job that was straight first shift, I was horrible to get awake in the morning. I was constantly over-sleeping; although I was rarely late to work, it was a mad dash from the time I woke up until I actually pulled into the parking lot at work.

Rick decided to move the alarm clock to the other end of the bedroom, thinking that once I was out of bed, I'd stay out of bed. Nope. I'd get out of bed, stumble over to the alarm clock, turn it off, and stumble back to the bed and fall in. Finally, in desperation one morning, before he left for work, he put the alarm clock up in the shade of the ceiling light in the bedroom. The alarm clock rang. And rang. And rang. I was running around the bedroom, trying to find the blasted thing. And then finally, I looked up. There it was. I got up on the bed, turned the clock off, threw it in the corner. And went back to bed, for "just 5 more minutes".

I remember one time, Rick came back to get me out of bed. I kept saying, "5 more minutes! Please, just five more minutes!" He said to me, "Pamela get up! I'm not leaving until you're up! Foot on floor, please! Foot on floor!" So I stuck my foot out from the covers, put it on the floor, and said, "OK, go away!"

I was never a morning person, until we got the cats. Unlike an alarm clock, they do not shut off! And you can't throw a cat in the corner.

I think everybody on TCS could use more sleep! Your stories are so funny!

 

[Mia6]

I was so tired a few weeks ago......high pain levels...sleeping short intervals.
I placed the bottle of Gain Island Scent in the frig, put the peanut butter on
the shelf where the Gain is kept.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Oh my goodness Mia6 ! At least you didn't mix them up making a sandwich or something!

I was a lot like you getting up for work Winchester . DH is so different. He's got 2 tall glasses of water chugged down before he even has his coffee made. He's washing dishes and cooking breakfast. Me? Nope. My alarm was across the room too. Didn't help. Waking up that fast is physically painful to me. Our old queen bed sat so high off the floor I'd lay my top half against the foot of the bed and drift back off. I've drifted off in the bathroom too. It didn't matter that I went to bed by 10pm like a good adult. My body does not ever want to be awake before 8 and preferably not 10. When I got laid off it was a matter of days before I was on a natural 2am till 10am sleep cycle. It felt good! I felt good too! Imagine that!

DH is pretty gentle about waking me and tries a few times because he knows the first times I may not register him being there AT ALL. I don't know how I did it when the kids were babies. If they come in now they might have to repeat themselves 3 times before their words make any sense.

When I was a teenager I'd let Glory and Tiger in and out of my room all night long. I was an expert at up and down without really waking. Now; leave me be!