Trouble with sleeping?

Ok, it's 12.50pm now. I'm suppose to be having lunch with my colleagues like I normally do. but I'm not. Why? Well I thought I'd be able to save some time for a quick nap cos I was sooo damn sleepy this morning!! But after trying very hard for the past 15 minutes, resting my head on my small pillow/cushion, I gave up.

It's always been like this for me. even back in the days when I'm still studying. I tend to fall asleep in classes, all the time!! I know everyone falls asleep in class very often, but definitely not the way I do. Well for the first 1 or 2 years, I only fell asleep on the boring classes, where the lecturers were usually doing a lousy job. you know the type, boring topic to start with, and they just read from the slides of power point, no humour, no energy, flat tone kinda speech. I think everyone who's been a student once will agree that it's perfectly normal to sleep on such classes. Yea that's what I did.

But my case has gotten way worse than that during my years in advance diploma. I will literally sleeps in every classes. I remember we have this contract management subject for all 2 years of our advance diploma, and it's a subject that I personally like a lot, and I usually score on this paper. The lecturer were doing a hell of a job, good handouts, interesting way of teaching, case study discussions and cracking jokes all along the way. Seriously, everyone enjoyed his class so much that no one wants to miss his class. We were all great students! During his classes at least.

Despite how I'm fond of the subject and how great his lecture was, I still fell asleep on his classes. I really couldn't help myself! 20 minutes into the 2 hour lecture and I'll be drown by sleepiness and I'll dose off soon after that. Well I can't have that can i? Not if I wanna score in this paper! So me and my supportive friends decided to sit on the very first row, right in front of the lecturer. I always volunteer to sit in the middle so that I'll be face to face with the lecturer and the distance between us would be like, half a meter. that's way close to the lecturer! Not even enough distance for a somewhat over weight person to pass between us!

You'd think sitting under the lecturer's nose will definitely keep me awake. That's so far off from what happen! More often than not, the lecturer would stop abruptly in the middle of his lecture, look down at me and an announce to the whole lecture hall (around 200 pupil) that I've fallen asleep again! God knows how many times this has happened throughout the 2 years of my advance diploma. Well naturally everyone in the hall burst out laughing and my dear friends sitting beside me will have to elbow me to wake me up!

OMG I can't tell you how embarrassed I was, for the first few times at least. After that everyone got use to it, including the lecturer and me. The same happened to every single class I attended, no matter what's the subject and who's the lecturer. Heck I even fell asleep during my convocation! After I've received my scroll which was empty by the way, there's still tonnes of student behind us, waiting for their turn. So I adjusted to the most comfortable position possible, and doze off.

Luckily I'm good at last minute study and also many thanks to my dear course mates who would lend me their notes to photostat! I wouldn't be able to graduate if it weren't for you guys for sure!

All that happened when the lecturer's up front trying to pass on some useful information to us, but during the 10 minute break time, it was a whole different story. I'll be up and awake, energetic as I can ever be. After that 10 minute of bickering, joking and making fun among friends, I'll tune back to my usual sleepy self again.

Now I've just found out about EDS, Excessive Daytime Sleepiness from Wikipedia, you can click here if you wanna know more bout it, or if you're facing the same problem like me. Just a short definition here.

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is characterized by persistent sleepiness, and often a general lack of energy, even after apparently adequate night time sleep. Sudden involuntary sleep onset, and microsleeps are common complications. EDS is one of the two forms of hypersomnia, the other being prolonged nighttime sleep.

There's a simple tool you can use to evaluate yourself of this disorder is the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. It's more like a quiz, here's how it goes. (I've put in my score here)

How likely are you to doze off or fall asleep in the following situations, in contrast to feeling just tired? This refers to your usual way of life in recent times. Even if you have not done some of these things recently try to work out how they would have affected you. Use the following scare to choose the most appropriate number for each situation:

0 = No chance of dozing
1 = Slight chance of dozing
2 = Moderate chance of dozing
3 = High chance of dozing


Situation

• Sitting and reading. My score: 2 (it kinda depends on what I'm reading, but likely to fall asleep I would say)
  

• Watching TV. My score: 3 (as I recall, the last couple of times when I actually spent some time in front of the TV, all end up with me falling asleep on the couch)

• Sitting inactive in a public place. My score: 2 (now that's a recipe for disaster! not in theater maybe but meeting, definitely)

• As a passenger in a car for an hour without a break. My score: 3 (give me 20 minutes and I'll already be sleep talking)

• Lying down to rest in the afternoon when the circumstances permit. My score: 2 (normally I would have said 3 for sure but given what happened just hours ago, lunch break but cannot sleep, I settled for 2 instead.)

• Sitting and talking to someone. My score: 1 (it's normally quite hard to doze off when you're in a one on one conversation, but it did happened on me, not sure how many times but definitely more than once)

• Sitting quietly after a lunch without alcohol. My score: 3 (come on, lunch intake so much carbohydrate, blood sugar increase, of course will be sleepy!)

• In a car, while stopped for a few minutes in traffic. My score: 0!! (I tend to be pretty nervous behind the wheels, so no way of falling asleep there)
  

So my total score will be..... *drum roll*.... 2+3+2+3+2+1+3+0=16! Now let's see what my diagnose, according to the Epworth Sleepiness Scale Key will be:

1 - 6 Congratulations! You're getting enough sleep!
7 - 8 Your score is average.
9 and above Seek the advice of a sleep specialist without delay.

Care to introduce me a good sleep specialist anyone?


Lurve always~ *yawn*