A question regarding sleep and reading.

[Daydreamer]

So, I've noticed that whenever I don't sleep enough, my brain auto corrects whatever I'm reading into nonsense. This usually occurs when I've only had three hours or less (but sometimes slightly more than that).

Please note, I'm not recommending this at all. Sleep is important. However, I would be lying if I said that I've never stayed up too late researching zebra seahorses etc.

My questionable choices aside, I have to wonder at what point people tend to experience this. What level of tiredness leads to poorer processing skills? How many hours of sleep does this usually occur at? I probably won't get exact answers, but I do think about this sometimes.

Whilst I have visual processing issues (even when fully rested) I usually only run into problems with numbers, equation signs and music notes. However, I am fine when reading letters. Unless I am tired. In that case, sentences get bizarre.

For example, I stayed up too late once and the next day I tried to read the title of a poster. At first glance I thought it read "Piggy Blue Earth Is." So understandably I found that to be a bit odd. Then I realised the title was "Planet Earth Is Blue".

Here's another example, when I was younger and I'd stay up too late on Christmas eve...
(the scandal! ) I'd sometimes misread my present tags on Christmas.

This is probably normal to some degree, but I wonder if perhaps my visual processing issues heighten such an effect/ make it worse. With numbers, they tend to switch around (24 becoming 42) but I don't usually get that with letters.

Although, when put through generalised tests at school and college it was noted that the same processing delay occurs when I read numbers and letters. There is a process that occurs when our brains see a "7" or a "P". A quick split-second acknowledgement that what you are looking at is indeed a "7" and that it represents "Seven of something". However, that process takes longer in my brain than average. That is why if you flashed a series of numbers on a screen quickly, I could not tell you what numbers I saw. Since my brain needs more time to process that visual information to make sense of it.

I have puzzled people before because despite my issues with numbers, my ability to read sentences and have an average spelling ability apparently doesn't make much sense. That is why a few people I have met have put my issues down to anxiety. However, I disagree with that conclusion. Perhaps my brain does mess up on words, but corrects it so quickly that I don't notice, except when I'm tired and it stops correcting itself. I don't know, I'm no psychologist. The only issue I have when reading (and fully awake) is that occasionally I'll get midway through a word and go back to the beginning for seemingly no reason. I'm not fully sure why, but that's more likely to happen when I'm reading out loud than in my head. Still, it doesn't happen much.

 

[tlc]

What happens with me is I'll continue to read, but my brain starts thinking about something else. So I have to go back sometimes several pages until I remember where I left off. And this is regardless of sleep.

I do pretty well with almost no sleep. But one thing I noticed back when I had to work long hours, and shuttle my daughter to my grandmas during the day, 90 miles every day... Some mornings I'd not have enough brain power to do 2 things at once. For example I couldn't power through a corner, as I didn't have enough brain power to work the gas and steering at the same time. I'd have to idle through the corner.

When I was driving back from the 2017 eclipse, I knew when I had to find a place to stop and sleep. I was totally hallucinating on the road, everything looked like weird scary things. It used to be a regular thing nodding off and having to jolt myself awake when I used to have to run her downstate and back all the time, but I never hallucinated like that before. Except when they had me on Toridol in the hospital, that was like how people described LSD.

 

[Progster]

I don't know how few hours of sleep one has to have had, or at what level of sleep deprivation such phenomena start to occur, it's probably different for everyone, but I have experienced this jumbling up of letters and words before. It's like I process them, but not in the right order or at the same speed. I sometimes misread signs or forum thread titles because of this. It's more likely to happen when I'm tired or brain-fogged. I don't know how common this is.

 

[SusanLR]

What happens with me is I'll continue to read, but my brain starts thinking about something else. So I have to go back sometimes several pages until I remember where I left off. And this is regardless of sleep.

This is a problem I have all the time too regardless of sleep.
Always find myself backing up to where I remember what I've been reading.
My thoughts wander.
It has gotten worse with age. I wasn't that way when I was younger.

 

[Gracey]

I quite like this when it happens.
The more nonsical, the better.

I'd be delighted with 'Piggy earth blue is

On reading a weather app and seeing 'Gales on the west coast.
I think, Is she?

Sometimes, when speaking, my brain is on the third or fourth word in a sentence and my mouth is still completing the first.
Some interesting sounding nonsense follows.

My thoughts can also wander when reading sometimes.
I'm not following the story and creating images of what I'm reading, like a film/movie,
My eyes are still following the shapes of words on the page, left to right but I'm likely going over a previous interaction or conversation in my memory.


There are times I will have to read and re read and read something again before it settles into English.

The brand FCUK (eff, see, you, kay) was a big re read on first seeing it.
Quite clever really

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

On reading a weather app and seeing 'Gales on the west coast.
I think, Is she?

What happened to Brian Tilsley?

Is the same reaction but one step removed...

The brand FCUK (eff, see, you, kay)

Great. Now I know what you think of me.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I'll get midway through a word and go back to the beginning for seemingly no reason.

I use flibbertigibbet for this. A great word to go round and round with.

 

[shysnail]

It doesn't take much sleep deprivation for my brain to be off-kilter. I'd say five hours or less, and I'm going to struggle. I don't think I could pin down as succinctly as you have exactly the kind of thing my brain does when tired. I guess I'm more in the "can't focus" camp. I'll read something without reading it, or skip over random words or misunderstand what's being expressed with the words. I also get that sensation that I'm not really IN the world, just watching it through a couple of panes of glass, when I've not slept enough.

 

[Pats]

My first thinking is that lack of sleep is stressful and it's harder to process under stress.
And, I've found myself up all hours looking up stuff that I'm suddenly curious about that normally I probably wouldn't even care about. lol

 

[Progster]

Just to illustrate the point, I just read Pats' thread title "9 hours panick" and thought it said "9 hours picnic" lol!!

 

[Pats]

Just to illustrate the point, I just read Pats' thread title "9 hours panick" and thought it said "9 hours picnic" lol!!

Oh that would also be bad to experience. lol
And it may have helped had I spelled panic correctly.

 

[Daydreamer]

Apparently this happens to the majority of people, cells called Astrocytes help the brain to function better while you sleep. When you stay awake for too long, your brain doesn't have enough time to essentially defrag itself. The result of this is that it leads to poorer comprehension skills and a lesser ability to interpret visual signals correctly. Our brains are similar to a giant computer, with rest akin to keeping everything up to date and working so everything runs as it should.

It's only really a concern if it is something that happens a lot when you are fully awake. Which in my case it is, but not with letters. I also have other issues as well, but on the plus side my brain does seem to compensate for them.

Sometimes, when speaking, my brain is on the third or fourth word in a sentence and my mouth is still completing the first.
Some interesting sounding nonsense follows.

I've done that before.

My thoughts can also wander when reading sometimes.

Only if my thoughts are more interesting and/or important than what I'm reading, personally.

I'm not following the story and creating images of what I'm reading, like a film/movie,
My eyes are still following the shapes of words on the page, left to right but I'm likely going over a previous interaction or conversation in my memory.

I am a fairly visual thinker, so whenever I am reading a story I imagine the images in my head. Alongside smells, sounds, tastes and textures. I almost feel the emotions of the character if it's a particularly enticing story. There are a few things that can throw me off though.

- If I am unfamiliar with an object and/ or word.

- A lack of consistency.

-There's not enough description to go by.

- If high numbers of an item are used. Since I have a poor number sense (the ability to group items together to quickly work out how many there are) I find it hard to visualise exact numbers sometimes. Two boxes is fine, but Twenty five boxes and my mind is going to have a hard time. It brings me back to reality and breaks the scene.

This is fairly common in people with dyscalculia, struggling to estimate and having to count individually in situations where most people would group items without much thought. If you've ever managed to accurately guess the number of balls in a machine, then you have a good number sense. You can figure it out without having to individually count. I can't do that, I can attempt to group numbers manually but I will forget what number I got up to and have to start again. This process is second nature to many, but it is something I have to do manually.

There are times I will have to read and re read and read something again before it settles into English.

The brand FCUK (eff, see, you, kay) was a big re read on first seeing it.
Quite clever really

Definitely an intentional marketing decision. Most people will misread that because our brains tend to correct sentences and words for us, based on what they've seen previously. The first time I saw it, I read it incorrectly as well. It is fairly common for our minds to correct spelling mistakes and grammar when reading, as a result we might miss mistakes when looking over our own work. Our sight isn't perfect, proven by a test where people were told to keep score of a basketball game and completely missed the person in a Gorilla costume run across court.

It is somewhat fascinating how the human brain and our eyes will block out visual information, or change it based on what we already know. To the point where we don't always realise we are doing this. If the brain starts to change visual information to the point where it doesn't make sense (The one and twelve switching around on an analogue clock clock, for example) then you are either too tired or might want to look into that.

Or if slight visual changes mean you can no longer process something. I can't understand clocks with roman numerals on, my brain just freezes up when tasked with reading them or one with no numbers. This might seem easy to you, but I need the typical 12,1,2,3 etc if I'm ever going to understand it. I've tried to imagine those numbers in the places of the roman numerals, but it's as if my brain doesn't recognise it as a clock anymore if it doesn't have the regular numbers on already in their regular place.

I remember taking an art exam, and I looked at the clock to see the one in the spot where the twelve is. For a moment I thought "Oh, it's 1:15PM" and stood up because I thought the exam had ended, eager to leave. Then I realised "Wait, no, it can't be 1:15PM because the one shouldn't be at the top", so I sat back down again. Everyone who saw was rather confused at the sight of me doing that with no explanation.