Sleep apnea.

Kind of in the middle of nowhere Kansas and we had a lot of down time in a hot old Chevy Suburban truck...I learned how to sleep in that truck when it would get up to 100 degrees out, amazing what the body can adapt to, of course I was very young (20s)...so yes, I have slept on the job...

I have narcolepsy but back when I started with it they just put me down as someone who wanted drugs so I was not treated for about 20 years, All the time falling asleep and they thought I was wanting drugs. I just did not want to kill someone with my car since I had to drive.

That feeling you mentioned is so hard to live with.

Thanks.

Mrs. Lannon was NOT amused.

I never did that again.

most of thirty years it would usually hit me about 4 AM. IF we had any slow time this was usually about when it would be. It was a miserable feeling, forcing my brain to stay awake, even walking wouldn't always help, and I needed to do paperwork during that time.

Part of it was sleep apnea (a serious medical problem which can cause blood pressure and heart problems). Now I sleep on the chaise longue with my head elevated and I have the best sleep I have had in a half century. My internal clock is completely broken though. Ironically I have the only two cats in the world who sleep soundly all night.

I have to fight the first 15 minutes of a meeting to stay awake but after that, no problem.

I'm not completely sure I dozed maaaybe for a sec or two...
I had Art History class first thing in the morning (Art College). Past eatly grade school was no longer a morning type person.
I'd tended to be nearly late, and ended up sitting on a high stool with someone sitting below me.
Oh, did I have to fight to keep myself awake and not tumble onto the person below me! 😄

Typography class first morning class. Chin on folded arms on the table. Struggle, and Out! They left me alone, and I slowly reawoke. I guess just a few mins.

The most excellent nap I ever had!
Working on a round table at the "entrance way" to our sort of narrowish work section at 90° degrees to the main walkway. I had my chair next to the wall. Was doing ten-key adding machine stuff with my right hand, and writing the results down w my left hand.

Your typical mid-afternoon energy slump. Fight those dozys! Fight, fight, fight,...
fiiii....Zzzzzzzz....
I don't think I was out too long. I found myself slowly opening my eyes. oHh.. blink, blink.
But then I was totally awake, and went zipping right back to work for the rest of the day! 😄

I was at a conference in Boston many years ago and for the first few morning sessions I could not stay awake, doing the nodding and bolt upright bit over and over, despite having drunk several little cups of complimentary coffee. The hotel was attached to a shopping mall where during a break I went to an Au Bon Pain and purchased an iced coffee drink called a "Mocha Blast". I drank it down and was wide awake for the remaining sessions, often raising my hand with questions or comments, some of which were brilliant.

I had an overnight run driving an 18 wheel truck 600 miles everyday. It would hit me around 4 am. I would pull over, lay my head on the steering wheel and close my eyes for a power nap.

Some became indecipherable

I'm an organist, and the sermons usually put me to sleep. I have an uncanny ability to wake just before I hear "Let us pray".

from me catch me in the morning. I am a Lark, not an Owl. My eyes close, head dips at most mandatory seminars, meetings. I was a PowerPoint napper.

And many years ago when pregnant - I was always dozing off. One time I fell sound asleep sitting in a room full of talkative company when pregnant.

I still had to go to school the next day so, yes, I often slept during class after being out all night for a concert.

There were comments in my yearbook about sleeping during math class but I maintain that I'm so number-challenged that I'd fall asleep in math class even without an out-all-night concert. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 🙂

This took place in Trumbull, CT. back in the early 60s. I was in art class (yes, it was a mandatory course) and across the hall was a science class. About the middle of the period, we notice the lights in the science room went out and the teacher and the students were tiptoeing out. Another teacher came by and just stood in the doorway looking into the room. Our teacher found out what was happening and we remained quiet.

It turns out a male student fell asleep at his desk.The teacher standing in the doorway was his mother who taught at that school. Needless to say, everyone, but the sleeping student, thought it was funny.

Riding the bus home from work, 1969 (first job out of high school, era of the MICRO MINI skirt) I fell FAST ASLEEP on the bus on a seat that faced the driver, no cover at all. Woke up just before my stop. I'd slipped WAY down in the seat, legs splayed like I was about to give BIRTH.

(I could have DIED. Never blushed so deeply in my life.)

When I was a kid, falling asleep in church was a regular thing for me. So much so that my mom would insist on sitting next to me so she could gouge me in the side with her elbow when I nodded off.

In high school I only tried sleeping in class if I was seated near the back of the room.

In college I was working 6 nights a week and getting back to the dorm at 3AM, so I would doze off in class often, even with the help of *ahem* chemical aids.

I fell asleep standing up when I was working a temp job on an assembly line...not good. But fortunately, I wasn't near any kind of moving conveyor, just a workstation.

I don't know how long I've had sleep apnea, but I was finally diagnosed with it about 16 years ago.

I used to work nights doing delivery for a microfiche company. (For all you kids, those were clear little cards that had something like 100 pages on each one. You could put it in a viewer and look at images of paperwork. It made storing such things way easier at the time.) I fell asleep more than a few times while cruising down the interstate. Never lost it and never hit anyone. (Came close one time, though.)

I also developed a method whereby I would make sure to haul ass to this one particular stop. We had a route that could give me thirty minutes between spots if I timed it right. So, I would take a quick Power Nap in their parking lot. The guards that worked over night at this location knew me and would leave me be. (We used to gather in their office while I was awaiting the company pickup and listen to this radio station who held trivia contests overnight from time to time. I have won some great things from it. So did my guard friends!)

I also used to take a quick nap between the matinee and the evening performance when I did plays at the dinner theater. Just curl up on the piles of cloth in the men's dressing room (The cloth was there for crafting things for the stage, be it costuming, set decor, or just a quick something for an entrance.)

I have to say, I do miss the days when I could take a 20 minute nap and be ready for another 20+ hours. I sure cannot do that anymore.

that I scheduled in the morning. I couldn;t do that anymore. I worked on conductors and did fall asleep a couple of times.