How to Stay Awake at Conventions.....something new

[LloydSt]

I don't know why, but even after a good night's sleep, when I sit down in my seat at a convention, I almost immediately start to fall asleep.  I don't want to, but it has happened to me time and again.  And it's really almost impossible to resist, especially after lunch, no matter how light I eat.  And I know I'm not the only one.  It happens to one especially well regarded sister I know of as well.  And a look around will almost always find others fighting it or with eyes shut.  

For some reason, it really helps me if the speaker has some humor in his talk.  Or if I sit close to the speaker.  Also, sometimes I've used the trick of crunching some ice.  That always wakes me up when I'm driving and starting to get sleepy.  But I always fear that my ice crunching will be distracting for others.  (I'm the kind of guy who almost prefers distractions, or at least is never bothered by them, so feel free to crunch away if it's just you and me)  But I know some are easily distracted, so if I use that technique, I do it as discretely as possible.  Another technique I've used is going to try and find a "lonely place to rest up a bit" at lunch.  A 15 minute nap can be so refreshing for me!

But here's a new technique that is working, though I have no idea why.  I recently acquired a 12.2 inch Samsung tablet, and you can buy a Logitech keyboard to go with it, which I did.  And that keyboard is very quiet.  So, using the free Evernote app, I started taking notes on that tablet with the quiet keyboard, and guess what? I stay awake!!! 

You'd think the same would work by just taking hand-written notes.  But I still fall asleep when I do that, even to the point where my pen trails off into a flatline, humorously indicating little brain activity.  That ever happened to anybody? 

But typing works!  Maybe because it requires me to listen and quickly find the right keys to press at the same time.  I don't know.  But it works for me, so I thought I'd pass it on.