Falling asleep in the press box

[Chi City 81]

Hopefully, he suffers from low-grade narcolepsy.

 

[Blitz]

I've covered preps on a Friday nite, then driven afterward for 4-5 hours to make it to an 11:30 college kickoff.
Sometimes I'd catch winks in my car, after arriving in the early morning hours to the campus
I've still felt on some of those mornings like falling asleep in some pressboxes.

 

[Idaho]

There have been a lot of pressboxes in which I wish I could have passed the time by napping. Probably wouldn't have missed much, either.

Closest I came to it, though -- that I am aware of -- was after a night working the desk, followed by a 3-hour drive to a bike race, followed by a 75-mile bike race, followed by a 3-hour drive back to town, followed by a back-to-back-to-back state lacrosse championship day.

I still can't believe I averaged 19 mph for the bike race on 5 hours sleep and a couple of McD Egg McMuffins for breakfast.

 

[Ace]

I've covered preps on a Friday nite, then driven afterward for 4-5 hours to make it to an 11:30 college kickoff.
Sometimes I'd catch winks in my car, after arriving in the early morning hours to the campus
I've still felt on some of those mornings like falling asleep in some pressboxes.

Must have been a straight road.

 

[mike311gd]

I've covered preps on a Friday nite, then driven afterward for 4-5 hours to make it to an 11:30 college kickoff.
Sometimes I'd catch winks in my car, after arriving in the early morning hours to the campus
I've still felt on some of those mornings like falling asleep in some pressboxes.

Must have been a straight road.

Auto-pilot is a hell of an invention.

 

[Colonel Angus]

When I was a practicing alcoholic, I think I "fell asleep" for a while at one of those pre-season preview glorified scrimmages, but it wasn't like anyone cared. At the paper I worked for at the time, those were glorified picture pages, so as long as I could catch the coach afterwards and get the standard party line, I was pretty much OK.

In a previous incarnation as a city hall beat reporter at a small circulation suburban daily, I actually had a city councilor tell me, "Y'know, you look like you're asleep half the time but when I pick up the paper, your stories are better than our official minutes." Go figure.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

What's worse, falling asleep or having to run to the bathroom because you're sick/hung over?

I fell asleep once while covering a MLS game. I was on about three hours sleep and soccer isn't exactly caffeine...

I'm not proud of it, but it happened...

 

[shotglass]

Last year's state basketball finals, I battled like hell to keep from nodding off on press row during a small-class girls' game with no local interest. All the elements were there for me to do it, too. I usually get up around noon, but had to leave around 8 a.m. to get to the site that day.

 

[forever_town]

Press boxes I'm good, but I can doze off in meetings.

I haven't yet fallen asleep in a press box. As long as there's coffee, I can stay awake.

The most embarrassing time I remember dozing off was during a committee meeting back when I was student government president. I'd only had two hours of sleep the night before and one of the college's big wigs was giving a presentation to the committee that he was planning to give to the Board of Trustees. The presentation wasn't the most exciting one in the world, but I wouldn't call it the most boring either. However, lack of sleep caught up to me and I dozed off.

I started waking back up by the time his presentation was ending. The funny thing was, the guy looked out at me and said, "I see I have some things I need to work on."

I went up to him and apologized afterward, but he said he took my dozing off as a sign he needed to liven up his presentation.

 

[sportschick]

I came really close to dozing off during a Pacers preseason game. I'd student taught that day, getting up at about 5 a.m., after working a desk shift the night before.

I will only say that the press box at the arena in Evansville, Ind., is snooze inducing. If it wasn't for me constantly getting up to get more diet coke (something I almost never do), I'd have fallen asleep. The game was awful, and I could barely see the floor anyway because I'm so short.

 

[TwoGloves]

About five years ago, it was all I could to do keep from nodding off at hockey games. Often, I'd put my head down on the table in front of me between periods to catch a 10-minute power nap. I was worried everybody would think I was drunk of there was something wrong with me. There was. Sleep apnea. Got a breathing machine four years ago and it hasn't happened since.

 

[Gold]

I have a brother-in-law who was a retired Army sergeant, and he could nod off for about 10 minutes or so, seemingly at will. I guess soldiers have to be able to grab a couple of minutes sleep when they can, and it seems like a good talent to have. I could imagine it might be useful to nod off for 5 or 10 minutes and comeback refreshed.