Now that I am actually trying to learn a Far Eastern language, I have some newfound respect for the Far Eastern Magic Nap Society. (From anime Chuunibyou.)

The verb “tsukareru” means “to grow tired”. It is one of the few Japanese verbs I learned easily, because the suggested memorization phrase was “If you get tired, Sue will carry you.” While I probably would prefer it the other way around (depending on the Sue), it was still memorable enough to stick with me. Unfortunately, most Japanese words are harder to remember. And as a result, I do in fact grow tired. More exactly, after a bout of memorizing five words, I usually become very sleepy and may even fall asleep in my boss chair at home.

That feels about as ridiculous as it sounds. Five words? Now, the Memrise memorization is a bit more than just reading them. The words appear sometimes in Japanes (in the hiragana script), sometimes in English, and you get to pick the counterpart from a growing list of words (starting at four, ending at eight). The words alternate seemingly at random, and some of the time you must type the Japanese word rather than just picking it from a list. Still, it is just five words at a time. I should not go from reasonably wide awake to wanting to just shut my eyes. But I do, fairly regularly.

Reviewing is much easier, but still, if there are more than 20 (and there usually are 50+ when I come home from work) I may still start blinking heavily if I try to take them all at once.

I wonder if this is becoming a form of conditioned reflex now, from doing so much of my studying in the evening and sometimes early morning just out of bed. Those are the times I am not at work or making dinner or exercising though. I am not a full-time student after all.

***

This is not the only strange bodily sensation I experience these days. Having revisited Skyrim after a lengthy absence, I discovered that protracted fight scenes give me a hoarse throat. I know for certain that I don’t actually shout out loud (unlike some overly excitable gamers, usually much younger than me). Yet the body reacts as if I had been using my voice. Or Voice, in the case of Skyrim? I assume it is the muscles of the throat that involuntarily constrict during the intense stress.  Well, intense for me – I have very little stress in my daily life. I am single after all. ^_^

This may seem strange – it certainly did to me – but it is a known fact that the body reacts to imaginary worlds somewhat like it reacts to the real world. The whole concept of porn is based on this, after all, and it is one of the more successful business concepts of the world. So there is definitely something in it. I don’t need to tell most of my male readers about the ease with which the body reacts to even pure illusion of the mind. And it is not restricted to thoughts of the opposite sex. Angry thoughts cause the muscles to knot and the heart to beat more strongly, and fearful thoughts can cause effects in the body so fearsome that they become a source of fear that feeds on itself, leading to panic attacks. So the body is not a separate thing from the mind.

Perhaps interleaving Skyrim and studies will help take the edge out of either. Certainly many college students already do so, from what I see online…

Or perhaps I could, I don’t know, get enough sleep or something? OK, that’s taking things to extremes. It won’t be tonight, for sure. Because it was tomorrow before I even started writing!