Listening to Audiobooks Makes Me Sleepy

I tried listening to an audiobook yesterday, and it made me sleepy.  I’m not going to say what the audiobook was because it’s a polarizing nonfiction book that might make the book itself more important to the reader than the topic of audiobooks.  If I wrote about the book itself, I might get some outrage reading and outrage comments, but that’s not what I’m looking for.  There’s enough outrage on the internet without my adding to it.

I chose the polarizing book because I knew that my brain would be interested in it.  I didn’t want to try with fiction because I lose interest in most fiction when I read it now, so I definitely didn’t want to start with something that wouldn’t interest me even if I were reading it.

I generally don’t like being read to.  I like hearing my own inner voice (not my outer voice; I sometimes get annoyed with my own outer voice) and putting my own inflection into the words and sentences that I see.  I can’t stand hearing a reader put (what I think is) the wrong inflection into a sentence that neither of us have written.  Plus, it’s a pride thing.  I don’t need to be read to.  I’m perfectly capable of reading this on my own.  I don’t need anybody’s help.

I SAID I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP!

Ahem… anyway… I mean… I really don’t need help with reading… except maybe for science text… and poetry… and some big words.

One problem with audiobooks is that you can tell that the audiobook narrator is reading.  I can listen to a lot of radio and podcasts because people are talking, and the inflections and interactions are more natural.  The audio book voices I’ve heard so far are somewhat neutral and don’t sound natural, and my brain turns off a little.  I’m not saying they’re like AI voices, but they could have been.  

Sometimes I don’t mind hearing audio while I read, but the audio slows me down, unless it’s a detailed topic with a lot of unfamiliar specific words that my brain needs extra time for processing.  Then I can stop the audio and reread myself.  The audio book can also help with pronunciation.  I’ll occasionally see a word that I know but have never heard pronounced, and I think to myself “So THAT’S how you pronounce this” or “I’ve been saying this incorrectly all my life, and nobody has told me.” I have some astonishing gaps in my knowledge.  

I definitely don’t want to drive while I’m listening to an audiobook.  I probably wouldn’t fall asleep, but I also wouldn’t pay close enough attention to catch all the important details (in the book).  My driving record is almost spotless, but that’s because I pay close attention, not because I have quick reflexes.  Honestly, I’ve been lucky a few times too.  I don’t need audiobooks to distract me.  I’ve got my surroundings and my brain for that. And listening to books could add to the distraction… if I don’t fall asleep.

When I read, I do lots of follow ups, going back to the previous paragraph or previous pages just to make sure I’m following everything mentally.  I can’t do that when I’m driving.  Even though there’s not a lot of traffic where I live now, I don’t want to take the chance.  All it takes is one rewind and I could be on the wrong side of the road or inadvertently steer the car off a cliff.  Everybody I know would understand if I accidentally drove off a cliff.  They would probably think my mind had wandered and then my car wandered too.  

Just so you know, I wasn’t driving when I listened to my first full audiobook. I was sitting in a comfortable chair. Then I dozed off. Then I woke up, figured out approximately where I had last paid attention, reset the audio, and did some some chores while I listened, and then my mind wandered, and I had to reset again. Then I turned off the audio, finished a couple chores, sat down, and read the book on my device for a couple minutes before I remembered that my eyes prefer pages over screens.

I think I like the idea of listening to audiobooks more than I like listening to audiobooks.  There are still a lot of books that I want to read, but it’s probably bad for my eyes to read as much as I do.  My vision has gotten a little worse over the last couple years, so I’d better tone it down with the reading, especially on screens.  I think audiobooks could help me out, and they seem to work for a lot of people, but they won’t work for me if I keep falling asleep.

*****

Enough about me! What do you think? Do you prefer reading or listening? Do you prefer books or screens? Have you ever fallen asleep while listening to an audiobook? Have you ever fallen asleep while reading an actual book?