I often doze off during the long bus ride to school/work. It reminds me of childhood, when I would almost always fall asleep during car rides. I'm not talking about just my early childhood, I'm talking high school as well. For those of you who know me, this should come as no surprise. I have fallen asleep in places far more ridiculous than a comfortable car.
One of the things that always astonished me when I would fall asleep in the car as a kid was my consistent ability to awaken as we approached the house. As I felt the last few familiar turns before we arrived home, I would start to wake up. My body must have known that my mom had no intention of carrying me up a flight of stairs to my bed.
Today, I was met with that same sense of surprise as I opened my eyes from my little rest on the bus just in time to pull the cord for my stop. I must be getting used to this bus route.
I think it's pretty cool that we learn to perfom these sorts of autonomic actions that are beneficial to us. Of course there are much cooler examples than the one I used here, paricularly in the field of Biology, but it is interesting to think about nonetheless.
Do you think that normally voluntary things can become more autonomic by simple repetition? Does doing good things out of habit take any of the good out of it?
1 comment:
I used to find the same thing, that I'd wake up right before my stop. It's very neat.
I don't think habitual being good makes the good any less valuable. Just like making a habit of eating healthy food doesn't make the food less valuable to your body than it would if you had to force yourself to eat it.
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