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Am I the only person who wonders how someone could sleep so deeply that they don't notice the train never moved? I'm guessing he was on ambien or something? It

Am I the only person who wonders how someone could sleep so deeply that they don't notice the train never moved? I'm guessing he was on ambien or something? It could have been worse, he could have woken up at some town in the middle of the journey.

magicalhippo 4y ago
> Am I the only person who wonders how someone could sleep so deeply that they don't notice the train never moved? When I sleep at night, I never wake up due to my house staying in place. Why would it be different on a train?
- cuttysnark 4y ago
  Fair, but if your house were to move to Glasgow whilst you were asleep, I bet you'd wake up.
  - aidenn0 4y ago
    Noticing something didn't happen is much harder than noticing something did, particularly when you are sleeping.
    - cuttysnark 4y ago
      My joke, which clearly missed, was about expectation. Not waking up because your house remains still (as you expect it to) is different than sleeping a train you're expecting to, at some point, be moving and undulating. I say this as a person who falls asleep in moving vehicles—and wakes up if they stop for more than a few minutes.
- dghughes 4y ago
  I can't sleep in anything that moves even slightly. I was on a ferry when it was stuck in ice. I had been awake since the morning before, I couldn't sleep on the ferry even immobile due to any vibration. If I was on a train I'd feel any motion no matter how smooth.
  - andsoitis 4y ago
    Right, but that just emphasizes the parent comment: if there’s nothing to disturb your sleep, why would you wake up to notice the train isn’t moving.
LatteLazy 4y ago
Once you're asleep you're unlikely to be aware the train has moved or stopped. I got the sleeper to Exeter sometimes (not sure it still exists, this is over a decade ago and it wasn't advertised even then). If I fell asleep at paddington I wouldn't wake up when we (didn't) move. Similarly, it got to exeter around 5am but didn't leave until 7ish, you could select when they woke you up: on arrival or 30min before departure. I never woke thinking "we've not moving when we should be"
- iggldiggl 4y ago
  If you mean the through sleeper to Penzance then yes, that still runs and the down train still seems to be booked to stand for almost an hour at Exeter, but it now departs around 4-ish, so quite a bit earlier. Going the other way it stays in the platform at Paddington for quite a while, so while it's booked to arrive shortly after 5:00, you can stay on until around 7-ish. One interesting thing I've seen in older timetables (late 70s / early 80s) is that in some intermediate locations (e.g. Carlisle) they apparently did the same thing with through carriages which were then shunted onto/off the main sleeper train in order to let passengers from that station board earlier/sleep longer than would be possible based on the arrival/departure times of the main portion of that train.
grapeskin 4y ago
I think one of the main purposes of sleep is that your mind shuts down and you have no clue what happens during that time. Anything else and it wouldn’t be sleep.
- ne0flex 4y ago
  For some reason, your comment reminded me of one time in elementary school. I got some from school around 3:30, felt tired and then went straight to bed. I woke up around 8:00 and started freaking out, thinking that I had woken up at 8AM instead of 8PM (the sun was still out and resembled the sunrise). I rushed to get my stuff ready to leave for school and went downstairs. Saw my dad just sitting there, so I yelled at him that I'm going to be late for school and why didn't he wake me up. He gave me a confused look and said, " I guess you slept well, it's 8PM."
  - kayodelycaon 4y ago
    Been there. Switched to 24-hour time (8:30 PM = 2030). Now I'm only annoyed by the number of devices, applications, and people that don't support 24-hour time. :)
- HyprMusic 4y ago
  That's not how sleep works at all. Your sleep goes through many different phases and your brain is continually monitoring its surroundings for danger[0]. The reason why you feel like your mind is shut down is because, on a normal night of sleeping in your comfy home, nothing extraordinary happens. Try sleeping in the wild, it will be a whole different experience. [0] https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2022/01/06/JNEUROSCI.2524-20.2021 https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2022/01/06/JNEUROSCI...
  - grapeskin 4y ago
    The wild is a very different environment from a train ridden by a dude with years of acclimation to it. A comfortable train seat or train bed is definitely a place where a tired person can and will ass out. I’ve slept through a plane takeoff and food service and thought 5 minutes passed, only to realize it’d been hours.
zeristor 4y ago
The article mentions that he had been using the Sleeper train for 15 years, so I imagine he's used to it.
- gwbas1c 4y ago
  Maybe because it wasn't moving, he slept more deeply than usual?
2Gkashmiri 4y ago
every night when i sleep, i call the process "shutting down". i do NOT hear or feel anything, my family members have to rage shake me to get me up in the middle of the night if there is an emergency, earthquake or something of that sort. i NEVER hear the alarm clock in the morning or during the night, that means like last month i had to catch a 4 AM flight and i could not guarantee that i would get up at 2am, change and leave so i did the next best thing, i stayed up all night. (this was when i was alone for some reason) i listen to audiobooks when i am "Falling asleep", been doing that for the last decade, without fail. one time my phone broke and i felt "weird" sleeping without some narrator speaking to me. the rage shake thing, that is real. funny thing, i can sometimes "hear, like being in a well and looking out kind of feeling, but can't put 2 and 2 together with regards to something is trying to wake me up"...
- iso1631 4y ago
  I was in an earthquake once and only woke up when I hit the floor
  - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
    funny. i remember falling from the bed and speaking some expletives and jumping back up automatically. no in the moment attention towards what had happened or why
- green-salt 4y ago
  I wonder if this is a result of some kind of sleep paralysis?
  - 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
    dont know.... i have read about sleep paralysis but i cannot remember any of the symptoms. in our culture, we have the story of the sleep entity which is akin to sleep paralysis in all of its symptoms but i've never felt that. the "shutting down" thing for me is because in the morning, like most people there is no sense of passage of time but generally no dreams also. its like you wink and boom, 8 hours have passed. my mum has the lightest sleep on the contrary. we can walk outside their room, on tiptoes and flick a switch and mum is out in 2 seconds. polar opposite.
OJFord 4y ago
I fell asleep before take-off in Canada (YYZ) for the UK (LHR) a few months ago. I slept most of the way; it was only through conversation afterwards that I found out there was almost a 3h delay before we even started taxiing. If you're saying you have awareness while sleeping of something that should happen, and you'll wake up if you don't detect it, I certainly don't share that.
allknowingfrog 4y ago
You're not alone, but I think we're in the minority. If I were expecting to be moving all night, I'm confident that the stillness would eventually disturb me. I tend to wake up to any unexpected noise or movement.
- paulcole 4y ago
  I get this, but do you wake up due to lack of expected noise or movement?
- fastball 4y ago
  I'm struggling to understand the mechanics of being disturbed by stillness.
draw_down 4y ago
hiyer 4y ago
Having traveled overnight on trains several times, I can confirm that I would regularly wake up when the train stopped at a station. But this was probably because the train's state _changed_ from moving to stopped. In this case, since the train presumably never even started, I can understand why the passenger didn't wake up.
gumby 4y ago
Doesn’t seem odd to me; I’ve slept through customs stops and other events on sleeper trains in the past. I’ve fallen asleep in busy hotel lobbies and often fall asleep on planes before takeoff.
nibbleshifter 4y ago
It's pretty normal to have a few beers before boarding that train. You sleep like the dead.
gregoriol 4y ago
I would at least check that the train is indeed leaving before going to sleep. Even more on a day when there were disruptions. It is at least important to be able to hear any announcements.
gadders 4y ago
I've slept through aeroplane take-offs. Landings normally wake me up with a jolt though.
6c696e7578 4y ago
I've slept on the train plenty of times. Once you get used to the journey I honestly don't know how, but you often wake up just before you stop. Fortunately I've not missed my stop when sober. I'm sure the first few journeys would be harder to sleep through, but once you get used to it, it would be weird to not fall asleep if you plan it as rest time. I just don't think I could fall asleep in Glasgow though...
- green-salt 4y ago
  I was able to do this on Amtrak on a particularly hell commute. Get on train, get seat, zonk out. Wake up a stop or 2 before mine. Felt like some kind of super power.

magicalhippo 4y ago

> Am I the only person who wonders how someone could sleep so deeply that they don't notice the train never moved? When I sleep at night, I never wake up due to my house staying in place. Why would it be different on a train?

cuttysnark 4y ago
Fair, but if your house were to move to Glasgow whilst you were asleep, I bet you'd wake up.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  Noticing something didn't happen is much harder than noticing something did, particularly when you are sleeping.
  - cuttysnark 4y ago
    My joke, which clearly missed, was about expectation. Not waking up because your house remains still (as you expect it to) is different than sleeping a train you're expecting to, at some point, be moving and undulating. I say this as a person who falls asleep in moving vehicles—and wakes up if they stop for more than a few minutes.
dghughes 4y ago
I can't sleep in anything that moves even slightly. I was on a ferry when it was stuck in ice. I had been awake since the morning before, I couldn't sleep on the ferry even immobile due to any vibration. If I was on a train I'd feel any motion no matter how smooth.
- andsoitis 4y ago
  Right, but that just emphasizes the parent comment: if there’s nothing to disturb your sleep, why would you wake up to notice the train isn’t moving.

LatteLazy 4y ago

Once you're asleep you're unlikely to be aware the train has moved or stopped. I got the sleeper to Exeter sometimes (not sure it still exists, this is over a decade ago and it wasn't advertised even then). If I fell asleep at paddington I wouldn't wake up when we (didn't) move. Similarly, it got to exeter around 5am but didn't leave until 7ish, you could select when they woke you up: on arrival or 30min before departure. I never woke thinking "we've not moving when we should be"

iggldiggl 4y ago
If you mean the through sleeper to Penzance then yes, that still runs and the down train still seems to be booked to stand for almost an hour at Exeter, but it now departs around 4-ish, so quite a bit earlier. Going the other way it stays in the platform at Paddington for quite a while, so while it's booked to arrive shortly after 5:00, you can stay on until around 7-ish. One interesting thing I've seen in older timetables (late 70s / early 80s) is that in some intermediate locations (e.g. Carlisle) they apparently did the same thing with through carriages which were then shunted onto/off the main sleeper train in order to let passengers from that station board earlier/sleep longer than would be possible based on the arrival/departure times of the main portion of that train.

grapeskin 4y ago

I think one of the main purposes of sleep is that your mind shuts down and you have no clue what happens during that time. Anything else and it wouldn’t be sleep.

ne0flex 4y ago
For some reason, your comment reminded me of one time in elementary school. I got some from school around 3:30, felt tired and then went straight to bed. I woke up around 8:00 and started freaking out, thinking that I had woken up at 8AM instead of 8PM (the sun was still out and resembled the sunrise). I rushed to get my stuff ready to leave for school and went downstairs. Saw my dad just sitting there, so I yelled at him that I'm going to be late for school and why didn't he wake me up. He gave me a confused look and said, " I guess you slept well, it's 8PM."
- kayodelycaon 4y ago
  Been there. Switched to 24-hour time (8:30 PM = 2030). Now I'm only annoyed by the number of devices, applications, and people that don't support 24-hour time. :)
HyprMusic 4y ago
That's not how sleep works at all. Your sleep goes through many different phases and your brain is continually monitoring its surroundings for danger[0]. The reason why you feel like your mind is shut down is because, on a normal night of sleeping in your comfy home, nothing extraordinary happens. Try sleeping in the wild, it will be a whole different experience. [0] https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2022/01/06/JNEUROSCI.2524-20.2021 https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2022/01/06/JNEUROSCI...
- grapeskin 4y ago
  The wild is a very different environment from a train ridden by a dude with years of acclimation to it. A comfortable train seat or train bed is definitely a place where a tired person can and will ass out. I’ve slept through a plane takeoff and food service and thought 5 minutes passed, only to realize it’d been hours.

zeristor 4y ago

The article mentions that he had been using the Sleeper train for 15 years, so I imagine he's used to it.

gwbas1c 4y ago
Maybe because it wasn't moving, he slept more deeply than usual?

2Gkashmiri 4y ago

every night when i sleep, i call the process "shutting down". i do NOT hear or feel anything, my family members have to rage shake me to get me up in the middle of the night if there is an emergency, earthquake or something of that sort. i NEVER hear the alarm clock in the morning or during the night, that means like last month i had to catch a 4 AM flight and i could not guarantee that i would get up at 2am, change and leave so i did the next best thing, i stayed up all night. (this was when i was alone for some reason) i listen to audiobooks when i am "Falling asleep", been doing that for the last decade, without fail. one time my phone broke and i felt "weird" sleeping without some narrator speaking to me. the rage shake thing, that is real. funny thing, i can sometimes "hear, like being in a well and looking out kind of feeling, but can't put 2 and 2 together with regards to something is trying to wake me up"...

iso1631 4y ago
I was in an earthquake once and only woke up when I hit the floor
- 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
  funny. i remember falling from the bed and speaking some expletives and jumping back up automatically. no in the moment attention towards what had happened or why
green-salt 4y ago
I wonder if this is a result of some kind of sleep paralysis?
- 2Gkashmiri 4y ago
  dont know.... i have read about sleep paralysis but i cannot remember any of the symptoms. in our culture, we have the story of the sleep entity which is akin to sleep paralysis in all of its symptoms but i've never felt that. the "shutting down" thing for me is because in the morning, like most people there is no sense of passage of time but generally no dreams also. its like you wink and boom, 8 hours have passed. my mum has the lightest sleep on the contrary. we can walk outside their room, on tiptoes and flick a switch and mum is out in 2 seconds. polar opposite.

OJFord 4y ago

I fell asleep before take-off in Canada (YYZ) for the UK (LHR) a few months ago. I slept most of the way; it was only through conversation afterwards that I found out there was almost a 3h delay before we even started taxiing. If you're saying you have awareness while sleeping of something that should happen, and you'll wake up if you don't detect it, I certainly don't share that.

allknowingfrog 4y ago

You're not alone, but I think we're in the minority. If I were expecting to be moving all night, I'm confident that the stillness would eventually disturb me. I tend to wake up to any unexpected noise or movement.

paulcole 4y ago
I get this, but do you wake up due to lack of expected noise or movement?
fastball 4y ago
I'm struggling to understand the mechanics of being disturbed by stillness.

draw_down 4y ago

hiyer 4y ago

Having traveled overnight on trains several times, I can confirm that I would regularly wake up when the train stopped at a station. But this was probably because the train's state _changed_ from moving to stopped. In this case, since the train presumably never even started, I can understand why the passenger didn't wake up.

gumby 4y ago

Doesn’t seem odd to me; I’ve slept through customs stops and other events on sleeper trains in the past. I’ve fallen asleep in busy hotel lobbies and often fall asleep on planes before takeoff.

nibbleshifter 4y ago

It's pretty normal to have a few beers before boarding that train. You sleep like the dead.

gregoriol 4y ago

I would at least check that the train is indeed leaving before going to sleep. Even more on a day when there were disruptions. It is at least important to be able to hear any announcements.

gadders 4y ago

I've slept through aeroplane take-offs. Landings normally wake me up with a jolt though.

6c696e7578 4y ago

I've slept on the train plenty of times. Once you get used to the journey I honestly don't know how, but you often wake up just before you stop. Fortunately I've not missed my stop when sober. I'm sure the first few journeys would be harder to sleep through, but once you get used to it, it would be weird to not fall asleep if you plan it as rest time. I just don't think I could fall asleep in Glasgow though...

green-salt 4y ago
I was able to do this on Amtrak on a particularly hell commute. Get on train, get seat, zonk out. Wake up a stop or 2 before mine. Felt like some kind of super power.