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Bizarre thing happening in lectures

Fibonacci Squid

I am experiencing a weird phenomenon in lectures which I'm really hoping someone on here may have some ideas about because everyone I have spoken to so far is just confused and hasn't heard about anything like it before.

In every single lecture I am going through some of the steps of this process:

1. being distracted by ever tiny sound and turning my concentration fully away from my lecturer (very normal for me)

2. Develop a headache principally focused in a band across the top of my head

3. Start feeling the prickly cold feeling you get when you're in a cold place all over my body (my lecture theatre is not cold in the slightest)

4. Start getting distorted vision and very watery eyes. Also double vision which I usually only get when I'm extremely exhausted

5. Being unable to stay awake. Does not matter whether I'm writing, really interested in what is happening, full body stimming waylays it for a little bit but I still get stuck in the asleep, jerk awake, asleep, jerk awake thing for 10s of minutes.

This is not connected in any way to what I have eaten that morning, or if I have not eaten. I always get over seven hours sleep and usually over eight. It is extremely lecture localised, once I leave the theatre it resets completely. It's not an issue when independently studying or in practicals or small teaching groups. 

The experience I can most relate it to is what I refer to as 'exhaustion type shut downs'. These usually come at the end of a taxing project (e.g. 5 hours farmers market shift, day long orchid show) where I have been doing quite high social and sensory demand with no ability to take a break for a long period of time. And they have caused me to fall asleep in places like on the kitchen floor before. However, if it was this, many things about the cause are different. It appears to be entirely auditory sensory induced (maybe a little bit of light sensory too) and is on a way faster timescale. I can get to step 5 in 20mins.

I have a disability mentor and a study skills supporter who I am in progress discussing it with and my parents are keen for me to speak to the college nurse about it. I'm just trying to find a way to deal with this because it is predictably having an impact on my learning and there are logistical difficulties to me switching to fully online lectures and I don't think I'd learn as well with them as I do in in person lectures (when I'm awake anyway).

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any idea what might be going on or what I might be able to do to try and minimise/get rid of it?

Thanks for any help

  • Hi, 

    First of all it's great that practicals and supervisions are going well!

    The issue with the lectures sounds challenging. Unfortunately I also don't have a solution but some questions and ideas come to mind so I'll just list them in case any of them give you an idea: I guess you probably have lectures in several different lecture theatres- do you have this issue in all lecture theatres? If yes is the severity the same in the different lecture theatres? If not then what is different between those venues/lectures? (eg. size of lecture theatre, number of people, lighting, sound/ noise/accoustics etc) 

    In lectures do you usually sit in the same place in the lecture theatre each time? If not is it better or worse depending on where you sit? Do you think always sitting in the same spot could help to give it some more predictability? (I used to have my favourite spots for lectures). Do you always sit with the same people? Could it help to maybe have some friends/ people you know that you could always sit with? 

    This is probably not relevant but I will just mention it as it did cross my mind- is your eyesight fine? Because if you are not seeing well (even if it is minor) and you are straining to read the slides, it can cause headaches and tiredness. It occured to me because I've had weird symptoms in the past where it turned out that either my eyesight worsened and I needed stronger glasses or once I had actually been given the wrong correction in my glasses. Also focusing on the same distance for a prolonged period of time (eg. looking at slides/screen in lectures) can lead to headaches. probably not the prime cause but if you think eye sight could be a contributing factor it might be worth to just get an appointment with opticians to rule out that this is making things worse. 

    Not sure if any of this is helpful. I really hope lectures get better for you. Like you say it's not great if lectures are so difficult but worst case you'll still be able to do well without being at your best during lectures (or even if you couldn't attend them, I've known people do well with quite low lecture attendance)- You get the lecture notes? And now also a recorded version of the lectures? So whilst it is not ideal you will still be able to learn and access the content. 

    First year lectures can be particularly difficult as there are often large numbers of people in the lectures and they take place in these huge lecture theatres- I'm not sure what it is like for your modules but it is likely that in the second and third year that will also improve and there will be less people in the lectures and it will be in smaller venues which might help. But hopefully you  will figure out some of the triggers and it will improve before then!! 

    Best, 

    Ann 

  • in reply to Mariusz
    Mariusz said:
    check lecture room outside lectures

    Excellent suggestion.

  • This sounds like a stress headache. 

    Stressors, when left unresolved, will simply pile up and at a certain point the body will have had it's threshold. A band like head ache is a sign the biology needs paying attention to as it's now beyond its limit. 

    The only thing I've found which helps is changing my environment socially and practically. Practicalities involve replacing unnatural lighting, buying ear plugs, and being somewhere with fresh air (I've also had issues with ventilation systems). If you can step outside after class for a few minutes it may be a temporary fix, but if there's no natural light, it may be best to ask to watch via zoom. See if you can meet in person once a week to go through any questions. Or maybe attend a few days per week. Socially, it's important to not tax yourself if this is overwhelming. 

    If you really want to find out what you're affected by, see if there's a department with tools to calculate the environment you can borrow. A Spectrometer to take light readings, someone studying to be an acoustician in the physics and/or music department, someone with a reader for VOCs and formaldehyde in chemical engineering or environmental studies who can survey the air. Oddly, it could even be someones perfume!

  • I would check lecture room outside lectures. It could be hum of air ventilation system making you fall asleep. I struggled with staying awake during lectures at uni as well. At that time I had no idea I'm autistic and something else might be causing it, so I though I'm just tired, 

  • Sounds like you are tense and becoming overwhelmed/overloaded which is exhausting you. Maybe your attempts to stay focussed are giving you a tension headache if you’re furrowing your brow hard or holding some other kind of tension in your face. Maybe straining your eyes? If the lecturer has a microphone is there a way to connect headphones to it so you can hear their voice loudest and directly into your ears? Like Deaf people use to hear lectures better? If they film the lectures could you come up with an agreement to attend online instead if you can’t pinpoint your trigger? Probably a good idea to talk to your tutor and/or the disability services they may have dealt with similar issues before

  • Clearly something about that environment is seriously triggering you. It sounds like the stress response of freeze. Are you feeling stressed about your studies in general? Is the lecture hall too bright or too loud or has a bad echo or is the lighting particularly bad. Is it possible for you to go there when it is empty and just sit awhile and see if you feel any different to when the lecture is in progress? Are all your lectures in the same hall?

    If other sounds are bothering you is it possible for you to listen to the lecture through headphones which would block out the other sounds? Presumably it is going to speakers so it might be possible to hook into that system, possibly using something like the deaf loop? I don't know if that is technically possible but it could be worth looking into.

    Can you look at reducing your sensory overload in other ways?

    If you are falling asleep every time then I do not think it can be true that you are learning better than from online lectures. Maybe you would even learn better just from reading the lecture notes? Do you generally take info in well from an auditory source or better from written? Lectures are not actually the best way for everybody to learn, it is not a one size fits all thing although it is presented as such.