Sunday Mornin' Coming Down - A post about my Dad each Sunday, named after a song that he loved.
My dad could not drive from 3:00pm to about 4:30pm. If he was in a car during this time he would get very tired and my mom would insist that he stop driving and she would take over. Sometimes he would protest but most of the time he would look at the clock and say, "Oh, it is three o'clock." Then he would get into the passenger seat and pass out for an hour or so.
He didn't drink coffee, so Dad had other 'techniques' to stay awake when driving late at night or during his afternoon lull. He would stop and wash his face with cold water, open the window, or turn the air conditioner on. These are good things to do to avoid falling asleep when driving, but in general, driving while tired is a dangerous practice. It is better to switch drivers, pull over and sleep, or have caffeine.
He did this even when he was much younger. His clock just said sleep at about 3pm. I always figured it was because he was both a night owl and a morning person so didnt get a lot of sleep at night. He didn't need to sleep for an hour though he could get by on a 10 minute cat nap (why are they called "cat naps", cats sleep all day).
ReplyDeleteI think most humans are actually biologically supposed to nap at 3..it's part of our natural circadian rhythms. I too get very drowsy around 3, and at school would always just close my eyes and try to secretly sleep. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/12/science/feeling-sleepy-an-urge-to-nap-is-built-in.html
ReplyDelete~Danielle