My 10 year old has a habit of reading late, then pretending to be asleep when I come in the room. It got me thinking - is there any way to call his bluff and tell if he is really asleep. If I open his eyelids, is there a difference? Heartbeat, breathing?
Tickle him!
I used to do that too when I was a kid. In my case, I could have sworn my mom always knew I was awake anyway because I could never breathe slowly enough - you know, those long, deep breaths that sleepers take. Whenever I tried to breathe that slowly I would feel like I was suffocating… requiring some mighty inhalation and a shift in my position, as if I were sleeping restlessly. (I’m sure she saw through that too, because normally I slept like a log.)
Fart.
Really.
Go into the room. If he’s faking it, he’ll pretend to be asleep no matter what you do, right? If not, tickling him might wake him up.
So go into the room, he closes his eyes and pretends to sleep…
Ignore him. Go, I dunno, put some socks in his dresser or something.
When you bend over, fart. Loudly enough for him to hear. This may take some preparation the night before.
There’s not a ten year old boy in the world who could keep a straight face after that. Trust me on this one.
Good luck! q;}
So, why do you feel the need to call his bluff? I mean, the kid wants to read! Don’t discourage that habit–he could turn to TV and video games.
But, I suspect that you could tell simply by observing. I assume that he uses a flashlight or something. Is it on his nightstand? Where is the book he’s reading? Look closely at him and the stuff around him. Leave and come back in 15 minutes. Has anything changed? Is anything missing or added? Has he changed position significantly (if he’s not a thrasher)?
I second Flash-57 on this. Be glad your 10-year old can read, and wants to read! He’s got the rest of his life to sleep!
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- The traditional way is to listen for a bit to the breathing–people assume that they breathe regularly while asleep, but this is not true–the breathing rate is irregular even in healthy people.
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- You could make a farting-sort-of-noise with your mouth I suppose, but the noise alone might disturb them from actually sleeping.
- I am kinda in the camp that wonders why this is such a bad thing, especially if he’s reading actual science or literature, and is having no problems because of it. After all, he’ll make up for it years later by sleeping in his college classes.
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Hey “falls asleep” with the light on and the book on his chest, in bed?
Why not just turn off the light? He won’t be able to read any more, and if the light comes back on, you know he was playin’ possum.
My own observations of sleeping people has shown me that there is a difference in the breathing pattern. Instead of a steady iiiiinnnnn/oooouuuttt of an awake person, it’s more of a iiiiiiinnnnnnnnnn/ooouutt/pause. Longer inhalation, shorter exhalation and a pause in between.
Watch for it in a spouse or someone you know to be asleep and see if you notice the same thing. I am pretty good at convincing someone I’m asleep when I’m faking. Including the little finger and toe twitches just as you fall asleep.
thanks for the replies. I do want my son to read, but not necessarily horror books at 11.30 with school the next day. I am not really too concerned though with his late night reading habits as I realise most kids do it at one stage or anotehr.
My question was really just curiousity. I was wondering if there was a simple way of telling if someone was faking sleep, short of an ECG. Does the heart rate fall during sleep, body temperature, involuntary reflexes stop? (e.g. after shining light into peoples eyes)
ticking sounds a reasonable try. I am not sure that farting would work as the kids are too used to dad’s excess wind production.
scm1001,
I realise you are more interested in the general question of how to tell whether someone is really asleep or not, but as far as the question of your son’s reading habits are concerned, why not agree between you a time that he can read to? I suppose that if he is still trying to read later, using a torch or something, you could always collect the book from him at that time.
When I was a kid I always used to read until late but tried to listen to the downstairs hall door being opened by one of my parents and quickly turn the light out when I could hear the handle being turned (sneaky child that I was). This would invariably result in one of my parents telling me to turn the lights out and go to sleep then shutting the hall door but staying on the outside of the door to catch me turning the light on again! The good natured ‘OI!’ called up the stairs normally convinced me that it REALLY was time to go to sleep.
grey_ideas
I agree with all those who say ‘Just let the kid read!’
My sister and I both used to stay up as late as possible, reading by the night light or with a flashlight. My parents sometimes told us to cut it out but I think other times they just let it happen. We are still voracious readers, now each with a postgraduate degree.
If he stays up late reading horror novels and has a miserable morning when he gets up, he’ll figure out for himself that it wasn’t such a good idea. And, if he doesn’t, then what’s the problem?
I know that this is supposed to work well for people who have faked a faint, but it might be useful for fake sleepers as well. Pick up the person’s arm, bring it up over their face and drop it…someone faking fainting/sleeping is aware that having their heavy arm dropped on their face will hurt and will usually move their arm down as it falls so it doesn’t bang into their face. Someone who has truly fainted (or, I assume, is truly sleeping deeply) will allow the arm to fall square on their face, consequences be damned.
A paramedic (and I think we have a few here, so they can hopefully verify this) told me once that one way to check if a person is unconscious is to hold the person’s wrist about six inches above the person’s face and drop it. Naturally, this only works if the subject is lying on his or her back.
The back of the hand will drop straight onto an unconscious person’s face. Most fakers will naturally draw in an elbow to prevent getting flopped in the face.
I don’t see why this wouldn’t work when someone is sleeping, but you also risk waking the person up.
Aggh! Fiire!
the armdropped on the face sounds a good idea. Though I can imagine the conversation at breakfast - " Dad - I think my nose is broken"
“you must have fallen out of bed son”
Do you have an EEG you can drag into his room when you doubt his state of awakeness?
You could always try a one-time prank where you put some kind of cream in one of his hands then tickle his face. Trouble is sometimes people wake up rather than subconciously scratching and splattering cream on their face.
Torch (in British) = Flashlight (in American)
Speak in a really soft voice and say, “If you’re awake, I just made some cookies and was going to let you have one, but if you’re asleep I guess I’ll just eat them myself.”