Staying awake

[Pte.Nomercy]

I was on a ex in which I must have had 1 hour of sleep, what made it worse was it rained all the bloody time and it was in late fall, needless to say once you got wet...you didn‘t get dry or warm! As a result, I was in the early stages of hypothermia and was seriously messed up!

While on a patrol we were told to go prone and wait for a rendezvous with another group that was doing the patrol with us. While lying next to a tree, I began to hallucinate, and a nice fluffy white duck appeared and waddled up to me and started harassing and taunting me! I was just about to hit it when I "woke up."

To prevent something happening again, I drink allot of water and I also chew gum. I find eating makes me more sleepy so I don‘t eat allot when it gets late.

What I find that works best, especially in classrooms, is to breathe in deeply through the nose to get the brain some needed much air which freshens you up. That usually helps me.

 

[scm77]

I don‘t know if you would be allowed to do this but I‘ve heard that if you put one of those pine scented car air fresheners around your neck, the smell can help you stay awake. Although people would probably be able to smell you from pretty far away...

 

[Ex-Dragoon]

And the enemy will be able to home in on your position....

 

[48Highlander]

just keep yourself busy. in the defensive it‘s easy: improve your trench. in the OP, chat quietly with a buddy, bring a rope and learn to tie fancy knots, do some friggin‘ origami if you want. just do something other than staring through your sites all the time. this will not only keep you awake, but will make halucinations less likely. the human body can handle 72 hours without any sleep, if you start halucinating before then it‘s usualy because your brain is starting to shut down. keeping it busy and focused will help avoid that.

when I joined we had to go through a 72 hour sleep deprevation exercise without any sleep at all. if you fell asleep an instructor would come around and boot you in the head, so I think only 6 guys actually managed to get 15 minutes of sleep. the rest of us prefered not to have a sore head. now because of regulations we have to give you 4 hours every 24, so if my whole platoon could handle 72 with no sleep, there‘s really no excuse for anyone on the new courses to be falling asleep. 4 hours of sleep a night is enough to keep you going for months at a time.

 

[The_Falcon]

My course, during the defence, we had a total of about 6-8 hours over about 6 days. By the end it right up to the final attack, myself and those in my trench started seeing the grass and bushes in front of us as people, and we lit the suckers up with everything we had. It didn‘t help that there were real people out their attacking us. We could not tell the difference between our imagination and reality, it was bloody surreal. What do we learn from this? Keep your mind busy. Don‘t let it wander.

 

[Sh0rtbUs]

thanx for all the help. i wrote alot of them down, and I spoke to a Sgt. I met on the range today.

he told me some interesting things..

One thing he told me was chewing tobacco. He told me a great way to stay awake is swallow it, and another more (slightly painful) method is to take a small dab of it and put it into the corner of your eyes. he said he doesnt know how..but it works.

As well..licorice. You can get a bag of the stuff for 60 cents at zellers. He said buy alot, stuff my pockets and chew on the stuff whenever im tired. I geuss that would fit in with the before ideas of the IMP snacks.

Im really looking foreward to it.

 

[Redeye]

Don‘t swallow chewing tobacco, your body will keep you awake only to keep puking. It is an effective stimulant, but it‘s also a disgusting and dangerous habit.

Chew gum, get a bag of sunflower seeds, whatever, if you keep something going on it will make it easier to focus. Also, to the extent that you can, keep moving, stretching, etc, to keep blood circulating. I find deep breathing exercises (yoga type stuff) helps too - breathe deep through your stomach. It will oxygenate your blood more and make the wait a little better.

Remember not to engage the Energizer bunny until you‘ve woken up the rest of your section first.

 

[Ex Ranger Instructor]

Oh my god! Ridiculous!

I‘ve found that nailing my testicles to the walls of my trench helps keep me awake. Maybe you should try that.

As an afterthought, Shortbus, I think that this particular Sgt may have been ******* with you. One of those, "go get me a box of grid squares" kind of things. Don‘t believe everything you hear. And for god‘s sake, don‘t put any chewing tobacco in your eyes, you dumbhead.

 

[Redneck052]

The best "trick of the trade" that I find is to simply keep your mind active. Regardless if your are on OP, in a trench, at a VCP, or just on CP watch. Just keep your mind active. Go through IA‘s, Drills, just keep the cogs moving in your head. However in doing this, don‘t forget to check your area of responsibilies. About the caffine...not bad for short term, but you‘ll find that prolong use could cause DT like symtoms. Sweats, shacks and alike when you ‘come down. Best of luck. A pocket full of toothpicks to keep your eyelids open helps sometimes.