The following eight fragments of fiction have collectively been written by four students during a seminar at the University of Applied Arts Vienna following the format of an Exquisit Corpse. The first few lines, the initial prompts of each anecdote, are taken from the levels of sleepiness on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale.

1

“It was a beautiful morning. I felt active and vital, alert and wide awake. In the seminar we discussed a chapter from a book and I was really interested in the topic so I sat down in the front row. This was my first mistake, ask I was only focussing on one small point on the screen. Sitting too close to the screen means to look at one pixel for the whole time, that appears much bigger than intended. The humming of the beamer mixes with the flickering of the image. The blue light from outside with the warm light insight. I feel like Cher in her new Christmas song ‘DJ Play a Christmas Song’ where she sings “It’s cold outside but it’s warm in here”. I love Cher.”

2

“It was a good morning, I was functioning at a high level and able to concentrate. At the start of the seminar Anna delivered a short lecture and I was really engaged. The topic was very interesting and I was ready to discuss. But just before I was about to open my mouth and place my opinion in the room I had to yawn so loudly that everyone was looking at me. I felt a bit uncomfortable. Uncomfortable! (In a high pitched voice) Sausage. Yes, with pretzel and mustard. You can’t miss mustard. Three to four portions of sausage, pretzel, mustard and beer. Hallelujah!”

3

“My day started relaxed, during the seminar I reacted to prompts but was not at full alertness. We had to complete individual tasks and I was longing for an oat milk cappuccino with a cookie. This is normally my best way to wake me up; the small sugar rush always takes me out of my brain fog. I started dreaming myself into a small cloud made from oat milk foam. Floating along the oat milk sea on a raft made out of cookie material. The surface below me turned soft and I swam into a vortex like Tim from the Kaba advert swam down a chocolate vortex. Yummy and extremely pleasant. I could remain here forever.”

4

“Since I woke up that morning I felt a little foggy and not at peak; I felt let down. In the seminar we discussed an article and I could not stop thinking about how yesterday I insisted on going to bed early, only to wake up on the wrong side anyway. Somehow this has been happening to me all week. Why do things always happen to me that usually only happen to stupid people? I’m often too dreamy and unfocused. But stupid people always survive the longest in movies. Lucky me! Finally time for my ‘main character moment’. “JOHANNA!!” Whew, awkward, I fell asleep again.”

5

“I felt slower than usual. My mind was foggy and I was beginning to lose interest in remaining awake. It was difficult to concentrate. During the seminar another student delivered a presentation and I would like to listen but I’m not interested in the topic. The slides are difficult to read and not nice to look at… I think… or am I maybe already dreaming… I’m still in class… but… it looks a bit strange… everything starts to flicker and I feel all the parts of my body becoming really heavy. Why does my head feel so strange? Where does this feeling come from? If I’d know everything, everything would only be half as interesting I thought and was content with not knowing.”

6

“I felt so sleepy, almost woozy. I was fighting sleep and would have preferred to lie down to sitting on the chair in the seminar. We had to answer questions about an article and I see how a colleague next to me has already fallen asleep. I keep changing my seating position, flip one leg over the other in order to fight agains sleep. Unfortunately without success. A few minutes later I was unable to take notes and turned to my laptop. Taking notes on a laptop means automatically being distracted by the 3000 small icons on the display, every singe app on the screen promising to be more interesting than the lecture. What is this seminar even about? As far as I remember it’s meant to be about history. Maybe my idea of history is bullshit, or that of the others.”

7

“I felt slower than usual. My mind was foggy and I was beginning to lose interest in remaining awake. It was difficult to concentrate. During the seminar another student delivered a presentation and I can’t think of anything else than you and I keep getting lost in my thoughts, that are not following any red thread anymore. I drift and loose my orientation. BAM, whew, that was loud. At least I feel a bit more awake now. Slowly I can feel some energy coming back; I take three deep breaths in and out; I stretch my head and my arms and finally focus on the seminar. Finally it’s over soon and I got some motivation left.”

8

“I felt so sleepy, almost woozy. I was fighting sleep and would have preferred to lie down to sitting on the chair in the seminar. We had to answer questions about an article and I peacefully fell asleep without noticing, since my dream was about work. It was about a staircase, it was spiralling up and down and eventually in my dream I started drilling and bending. I think I’m studying too much. Why am I always so tired, some can do this without any problem. I will not only manage this problem but will manage the whole day well! No matter how I got up this morning it won’t stop me to relax and to make the best of this day :)”