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[noodle0117]

Every day, I spend about 30 minutes on the subway to go to school.  Usually I'd just read or do something interesting to pass those 30 minutes, but recently, I've found that I've acquired an extremely annoying ability that replaces those thirty minutes for me.

It's the ability to fall asleep in subway train, while standing completely upright.

The moment my body falls asleep however, I lose balance and stumble onto the ground, inevitably drawing the attention of everyone around me.

And the worst part is, even with all my willpower, I still cannot help but fall asleep multiple times throughout a single 20 min subway trip, thus making me look like some kind of drunk schizophrenic schoolboy on drugs. (luckily I have never gotten into official trouble, although I am worried that it might happen if this continues)

Here's a brief description of my experiences of what it feels like to fall asleep in public.

When falling asleep, the first thing I notice is how I become unable to move my eyes. Like sleeping while standing, I've also learned how to fall asleep with my eyes open, although this ability has never really been that useful because whenever I do accidentally fall asleep, my unmoving eyes combined with my unblinking eyelids makes me look very awkward. Anyways, even though my eyes are asleep, my brain is still partially awake, which means I can still hear and feel things. The sense of touch however, also quickly goes away. If I was writing stuff down, I would slowly lose control of my hand as my writing goes from from straight, to a scrawl, to indecipherable scribbles before losing my grip on the pen. My legs are usually the last part of my body to fall asleep, and as long as I take a steady stance, I can keep myself upright, but once my legs fall asleep as well, they'd buckle and like a stack of cards, I would fall over, partially stunned from the fall, but moreso from the embarrassment that inevitably comes from the dozens of staring eyes.

So basically, as long as I am walking, I can remain awake and alert, but the moment I stop moving, I just completely nod off, even if I'm standing in the middle of a crowded public area.

I admit that I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately, but that's pretty much expected considering how my high school tests are coming up soon.
I prefer not to drink coffee because I get weird side effects from caffeine.
Sitting down keeps me from falling around, but then I usually become too sleepy to realize that I've already passed my station.
I also tried pinching myself awake, but more often than not, my drowsiness ends up overpowering my sense of pain.

So is there any way to stop myself from falling asleep in public and constantly humiliating myself?

edit: To clarify, I have no trouble keeping awake in class. I only fall asleep when I'm on some sort of public transportation.

[Ancre]

Erm ... looks like a medical condition ?

How much sleep hve you been getting lately ? Even with exams, if you sleep 3-4hrs a day thats way too little.

[Vorthon]

Erm ... looks like a medical condition ?

Narcolepsy?

[Ancre]

Erm ... looks like a medical condition ?

Narcolepsy?

I'm not sure it applies if it only happens when in the subway.

[Vorthon]

So basically, as long as I am walking, I can remain awake and alert, but the moment I stop moving, I just completely nod off, even if I'm standing in the middle of a crowded public area.

Sitting down keeps me from falling around, but then I usually become too sleepy to realize that I've already passed my station.

[Ancre]

Well, OP, you go to school. You're probably sitting on the same chair and not moving at all for a bunch of hours with little to no pause. Do you fall asleep when at school ?

Same thing, if you happen to walk in your house, then stop, will you fall asleep ?

Or generally, does this only happen in the subway, or does it happens in other places as well ?

I know I fall asleep on the subway a lot, but it's because the train's movements cradle me to sleep (it happens in any vehicule that's not acting like a rollercoaster actually). For th meantime, the best advice I can give is to buy a watch that works as an alarm clock as well, program it so it ring just one station before you have to get out of the train, and then you walk back and forth for a station in order not to fall asleep. Can't think of anything else, and it implies that your subways are on time though.

[scriver]

I used to fall asleep on the bus all the time during high school - both in the mornings and when heading home. It's the best kind of sleep (and so is sleeping on trains, though I don't ride them very often). Of course, I also miraculously woke up just before my stop most of the time, or got shaken awake by friends. Had to make some long walks home a few times too, though. Some of those I was several hours of walk down the road.

But advise? Can't give you much. Except trying to get more regular sleep patterns during the night and stuff, or bringing with you an alarm on the sub

[woose1]

Cocaine.

[Strife26]

I do the same thing, which is especially annoying because I spend a fair bit of time in tactical type vehicles. Heck if I know what to do about it.

[Aqizzar]

I get some of that myself, that if I don't move around enough, I get really tired regardless of sleeping.  In my case, it's low blood pressure and glucose, so I just run out of energy if my heartrate drops.  But if it's mainly happening when you're standing on a train, I can think of a couple things it might be.

Poor circulation, especially in your knees and legs, could be choking you off when you stand up straight.  I'm going to you assume you'd be aware if you're locking your knees when standing, but it could still be present anyway.  The other possibility is something like motion sickness - you stop walking, but your sense of balance can tell the floor is still moving, and your brain checks out.

[Sir Finkus]

Get more sleep.  If you're worried about your finals, you're much better off getting a good night's sleep rather than staying up all night cramming.  What use is studying if you can't remember any of it due to lack of sleep?

I've found my recall of facts "memorized" while sleep deprived is about half of what I remember if I'm studying while fully awake.  Recall of facts also improves dramatically when I've had a good rest.  It's kind of sad that sleep is almost looked down on in modern society when it's so important.

[scriver]

I remember a study coming to that exact conclusion. People who got a good nights sleep after studying remembered much more than even people who studied right up to the time of the test.

[noodle0117]

This only happens on the subway or other transportation vehicles.
I think they sort of lull me to sleep with their rhythmical stop/go movements.

I have no trouble (most of the time) keeping awake during class, it's just those buses and subs that make me unable to stand.

But really, I just want to be able to somehow not trip over myself multiple times while waiting for my station.

[Bouchart]

Get more normal sleep at night.

[GlyphGryph]

It's basically sleep more or drugs, yeah. If you're not getting at least 8 hours, do the sleep more first.

I have a less fortunate condition - I have a tendency to nod off after driving for about 15 minutes if I'm at all tired. Damn highway hypnosis! Luckily, I'm amazingly competent (and fairly conscious) while sleeping for a while afterwards, so no accidents yet. But for nighttime driving trips, energy drinks are a must for me.