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  • A question people often ask is one I'm not quite sure I can answer but I'll try.

  • (music: piano)

  • (Computer Voice) How do you stay awake if your eyes are closed most of the time?

  • (Tommy) I guess what you're thinking then is, do I just

  • fall asleep all day, like, you know, at the drop of a hat, am I all of a sudden asleep?

  • No.

  • I think it's more about being tired than anything else, I mean,

  • you know, just because my eyes are closed -- like if you

  • close your eyes. I mean, if everybody watching this video

  • right now. Let's all just try it. One second. Close your eyes.

  • (finger snap)

  • Look, they're all asleep. (gasp) Unbelievable!

  • Of course you're not sleeping.

  • Is that too much? (laughs)

  • (music: piano)

  • (Computer Voice) How do you fall asleep?

  • (Tommy) When I fall asleep, I just lie down.

  • And... you know, I just

  • get comfortable.... like anybody else does I think.

  • And just all of the sudden, just, you know, it starts to go

  • woo woo - you know, like on the cartoons or whatever. I don't know,

  • but... you know, it all starts to just go away

  • pow - fall asleep.

  • Ah, you know, I guess it sort of fades out.

  • No, that's not really accurate either, though is it?

  • Doesn't really fade out. I don't know, I just fall asleep just stop.

  • It just, lie down, comfortable -- poof --

  • off I go. Snores-ville man.

  • (music: piano)

  • (Computer Voice) How do you know when you're awake if you're blind?

  • (Tommy) (laughs) Well, you know,

  • maybe there's a sound outside, or I just naturally wake up

  • and I can just tell that the sleep is over.

  • You know, I can, like my surroundings, I can reach over and check

  • the, you know, phone and see if there's any email or anything like that?

  • You know, I just start doing things just like you do.

  • What a horrible answer.

  • Let's say I'm tired during the day and I'm bored or whatever, or like maybe

  • in class back in school, right. I used to

  • like, lean down and just sort of rest a little bit. It was great

  • because people could never tell whether or not I was sleeping because my eyes were closed

  • all the time. So it was genius. I used to sleep through class a lot.

  • I had one teacher who would always catch me, he would be like,

  • "Thomas E! What's the answer to number 16?"

  • And I'd be like, oh my god, now what? (laughs)

  • (credits music)

  • And if you're wondering about dreaming, well we did a video about that

  • you should really check out. Where have you been? What happened?

  • Wake up and watch this video! (laughs)

A question people often ask is one I'm not quite sure I can answer but I'll try.

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