Reply #5: Sleep deprivation did make me crack once during college.

[Ladyhawk]

The choir had just returned from a three-week trip across the country. During the trip we had little sleep and I never could study on a bus. When we were staying with hosts, I would be asleep.

When I got back, I found out a prof wasn't going to give me any extra time to study for a test, so I decided to pull an all-nighter. After a couple of hours of studying, I got so sleepy, I decided I had to crash, so I set my alarm to wake me up at 2 a.m. (or some such ungodly hour) and went to sleep.

When the alarm went off, my sleep-deprived brain somehow got the idea that the lamp on the swing arm was making that horrible racket. I reached over and started whacking the lamp. It wouldn't shut up, so I reached over and unplugged it. It still wouldn't shut up. Finally I half sat-up and started unscrewing the light bulb.

My Armenian roommate walked over from her side of the room and said, "What are you doing?"

I made some kind of incoherent remark about my lamp making noise and that it wouldn't stop. My roommate reached over and flipped off the alarm. (It's a wonder any of my roommates could stand me.)

About five minutes later I finally snapped out of it and started laughing. I was lying on my stomach and the big, stifled belly laughs were shaking the bed.

I got my lowest-ever grade on the test I took at 8 a.m. It was a C.