OK folks, its quiz time. Any of you that have ever visited my parent’s house should be able to ace this one question test. (Sorry to everyone that has never been there; I will offer a quiz that is a bit fairer to all a little later)
1) My Dad sits down in front of a television. What happens next?
A) He carefully finds the perfect program to enjoy for several hours.
B) He spends the evening surfing through all the stations.
C) He shoots spitballs at the screen trying to hit the actors between the eyes.
D) He immediately falls asleep within seconds of turning on the set.
E) All of the above (freightingly at the same time)
Dang, I could practically hear a bunch of you yelling “D!!!” in unison right through my DSL line. The television is like a shutdown valve to my Father’s conscious mind. He falls asleep so fast after turning on the set that the remote control is often still tightly in his grasp with his finger poised above it ready to change to the next channel. Sometimes he literally nods off in less then a minute’s time after turning the TV on. It is a truly amazing sight to behold.
I do not think the television has quite the same effect on anyone else in my family but I do sometimes worry that early signs of this sleep-effect might be starting to happen to me. All too often these days I find myself being roused by my wife, as she makes sure I have not drifted off to La La land during some program that I really wanted to watch. I assume she knows when I am nodding off (I tend to snore a bit) but I am not positive since she does not always mention it. There have been times that later in the evening, or the next morning, I have had to sheepishly ask ‘who done it?’ because I slept though some show’s big finish. Sometimes I wonder if she knows I missed some key part and she is just waiting to see if I will fess up to my napping and ask what I missed.
I guess I should be happy that I am a good sleeper. So many people around me have issues falling asleep. I’ve had my fair share of tough nights when the wheels are spinning a bit to much to allow me to crash, but overall I would say 95% of the time I fall asleep very quickly after laying my head down (hmmmm, I think I just heard some of my insomniac readers cursing me through that damn DSL line). I seem to do best when I get about five to six hours of sleep a night although I can usually function just fine the next day with as little as two (is that more cursing I hear?).
Now there is a blurry line between falling asleep and passing out for the night. This might not be the appropriate forum for discussing the latter but I will say that I am familiar with both. Whatever the case, there are times when watching a TV or not that my body has demanded that I sleep even though I might not be in a traditional sleeping location i.e.: a beach chair in someone’s backyard, a friend’s living room floor, the landing between flights of stairs, atop the trunk of a car… Within the context of the story that includes the background leading up to going to sleep in each of the afore mentioned places, none might seem that odd. Taken as a whole though, it seems like a scary trend that might soon lead to my Dad’s television issue.
So lets try another one question quiz based on my sleeping habits:
1) Dan sits in front of a computer screen proof reading this blog. What happens next?
A) He cuts out the part about sleeping on the trunk of a car.
B) He adds the really embarrassing story about Chinese food and… and …
umm , aaaaaa.. urg…. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz
1) My Dad sits down in front of a television. What happens next?
A) He carefully finds the perfect program to enjoy for several hours.
B) He spends the evening surfing through all the stations.
C) He shoots spitballs at the screen trying to hit the actors between the eyes.
D) He immediately falls asleep within seconds of turning on the set.
E) All of the above (freightingly at the same time)
Dang, I could practically hear a bunch of you yelling “D!!!” in unison right through my DSL line. The television is like a shutdown valve to my Father’s conscious mind. He falls asleep so fast after turning on the set that the remote control is often still tightly in his grasp with his finger poised above it ready to change to the next channel. Sometimes he literally nods off in less then a minute’s time after turning the TV on. It is a truly amazing sight to behold.
I do not think the television has quite the same effect on anyone else in my family but I do sometimes worry that early signs of this sleep-effect might be starting to happen to me. All too often these days I find myself being roused by my wife, as she makes sure I have not drifted off to La La land during some program that I really wanted to watch. I assume she knows when I am nodding off (I tend to snore a bit) but I am not positive since she does not always mention it. There have been times that later in the evening, or the next morning, I have had to sheepishly ask ‘who done it?’ because I slept though some show’s big finish. Sometimes I wonder if she knows I missed some key part and she is just waiting to see if I will fess up to my napping and ask what I missed.
I guess I should be happy that I am a good sleeper. So many people around me have issues falling asleep. I’ve had my fair share of tough nights when the wheels are spinning a bit to much to allow me to crash, but overall I would say 95% of the time I fall asleep very quickly after laying my head down (hmmmm, I think I just heard some of my insomniac readers cursing me through that damn DSL line). I seem to do best when I get about five to six hours of sleep a night although I can usually function just fine the next day with as little as two (is that more cursing I hear?).
Now there is a blurry line between falling asleep and passing out for the night. This might not be the appropriate forum for discussing the latter but I will say that I am familiar with both. Whatever the case, there are times when watching a TV or not that my body has demanded that I sleep even though I might not be in a traditional sleeping location i.e.: a beach chair in someone’s backyard, a friend’s living room floor, the landing between flights of stairs, atop the trunk of a car… Within the context of the story that includes the background leading up to going to sleep in each of the afore mentioned places, none might seem that odd. Taken as a whole though, it seems like a scary trend that might soon lead to my Dad’s television issue.
So lets try another one question quiz based on my sleeping habits:
1) Dan sits in front of a computer screen proof reading this blog. What happens next?
A) He cuts out the part about sleeping on the trunk of a car.
B) He adds the really embarrassing story about Chinese food and… and …
umm , aaaaaa.. urg…. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz
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