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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

Parents

  • 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 

Reply

  • 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 

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