Spent 45 minutes looking for my keys that were in my hand the whole time

Started at 1am tearing the house apart, checked every jacket pocket and couch cushion twice, then realized I was holding them while I was searching. Has anyone else done something this stupid when you're running on no sleep?

3 comments

3 Comments

jadej501mo ago

Heard my friend Sarah did this but with her phone. She was frantically asking me to call her phone so she could find it, and I'm like "uh, you're talking to me on it right now." She just stood there staring at it in her hand for like five seconds.

reese_lee91mo ago

Three times last week I caught myself walking into a room and forgetting why I was there, which is basically the same thing Sarah did with her phone but for physical spaces. It feels like our brains get so used to running on autopilot that we stop actually thinking about what we're doing in the moment. That little gap between knowing what you need and doing it is getting bigger for everyone, phones or not.

ben_lewis1mo ago

Yeah but like @reese_lee9 said about that autopilot thing, I think it runs deeper than just being tired or distracted. The part nobody brings up is how you can literally be looking AT the keys and your brain still flags them as "missing" because they're not in the expected spot. Your brain builds a little mental map of where things should be, and if they're not hanging on the hook or sitting in the bowl, they don't exist to it even if you're holding them. I remember reading something about how sleep deprivation messes with that specific part of object recognition, not just general memory. So you're not just forgetful, your brain is straight up refusing to process what your eyes are seeing. Kinda wild when you think about it.