How do you stay awake when you want to fall asleep?

One thing I've noticed,is that excitment,or the sudden shift into a situation where you have to act can wake you up again.When I work a night trick I work 4 pm unill 7 am for three days.We are allowed to sleep and I average 5 hours a night which are not continuos.During the day I do not sleep or nap,I hunt,or do my side job (roofing) or just workout and clean the house.

By the last night I'm pretty tired.If I go out on a trouble breathing call,I still feel tired, slow even.If we get banged out on a "worker"I can throw up a ladder, climb to the roof wearing 50 pounds of gear carring a 35 pound saw and cut the roof.Then go inside an overhaul for an hour or so and feel great.

I believe its the same feeling all these guys who are driving when they should be sleeping feel when they wake up in the other lane with a semi coming at them.
 
I can very well understand about the part about the semi coming at you on the other lane.

It happened to me once many years ago. I was drowsy from a heavy lunch and the hot sun was doing funny things to my eyes. Coupled with the aircon in the car, I dozed off for about 2 seconds.

When I snapped out of it, I was veering to the other side of the road. The revelation gave me such a huge shock, I stayed wide awake for the rest of the journey. I guess I was pumped full of adrenalin on discovering that I was knocking on Death's door!
 
After a while, if your body is telling you to go to sleep, you should stop what you are doing and go to sleep. I have had the pleasure of working long stretches up to 36 hours with groups of people at the office. After 20 hours people just begin to drop off, and after 30 hours their output becomes near worthless. You can cause pain to youself if you want to, but you are not really accomplishing anything.

Wandering around a snow field in a semi-coma is probably more dangerous than finding some kind of shelter and risking some sleep.

n2s
 
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