Line #85 Main/ExhaustionInducedIdiocy


1	->''"Cut me some slack, okay? Can you two even'' begin ''to imagine 500 uninterrupted hours of consciousness? Forget Mole People! About halfway through, I swore I saw the face of '''God!''' Until I realized it was just the night janitor, Reki. On the plus side, I gave him a hell of an ego boost. Man was riding that compliment for days."''
2	-->-- '''Kayaba''', ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged''
3
4	When you're running on fumes, you're not always in the right state of mind to make decisions. If you don't even have the energy to stand up, you probably don't have the energy to think rationally. Exhaustion-Induced Idiocy tends to be the result. This occurs for a number of reasons. The victim might be suffering from SleepDeprivation for whatever reasons, they been out in the blazing sun for too long and are potentially suffering heat stroke, they may be WorkingThroughTheCold, or they've worked so hard that they have completely drained all their energy. In any case, their judgement is so hazy that they end up making some rather questionable decisions.
5
6	This usually manifests in at least one of four ways:
7	#'''Forgetfulness:''' The victim fails to remember important information or even basic common sense. Usually, it is some sort of seemingly innocuous, but ultimately ''very'' crucial detail that slips their mind. Things they would have very little trouble recalling if they were more alert.
8	#'''Delusion:''' Their thought processes are so clouded that they end up believing things that they normally wouldn't. This can also include hallucinations and paranoia. This symptom is especially TruthInTelevision regarding SleepDeprivation. It could be considered Exhaustion-Induced ''Insanity''.
9	#'''Confused Logic:''' They may have all the pieces of information to work with, but their train of thought takes a detour (or several) causing a disorganized approach to logic. May result in SkewedPriorities or even InsaneTrollLogic.
10	#'''Too Tired to Think:''' The victim literally does not have enough energy to spare to even ''try'' to think straight. They may not pay attention to important details because of this.
11
12	These four symptoms can often overlap and may even play into others. The end result is the person acting or thinking in a way that they normally wouldn't. Usually at the cost of common sense. It can be something as small as putting salt in their coffee instead of sugar, or something major like accidentally selling off a company because they weren't paying attention. When the victim recovers from this exhaustion, you can probably expect them to reflect on their terrible mistakes and think ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime.
13
14	Compare AlcoholInducedIdiocy, BlindedByRage, FuryFueledFoolishness, HeroicRROD, FearInducedIdiocy, and WorfHadTheFlu. May result in TooDesperateToBePicky when someone is so hungry that they'll eat something they probably shouldn't or FellAsleepDriving if the person is operating a vehicle, often leading to tragedy. Contrast with HeroicBSOD and AngstComa, which result from ''emotional'' exhaustion instead.
15
16	----
17	!!Examples:
18
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Comic Books]]
22	* Max Damage from ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'' and its sister series ''Incorruptible'' becomes [[SuperStrength stronger]] and [[NighInvulnerability tougher]] the longer he stays awake ([[BroughtDownToNormal resetting to human-normal]] when he sleeps). Since sleep deprivation and stimulant drugs affect him the same way they affect anyone else, his [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity judgment and mental acuity are at their lowest]] when his [[BlessedWithSuck powers are at their highest]].
23	[[/folder]]
24
25	[[folder:Fan Works]]
26	* ''Fanfic/AvantasiaProtagAU'' series: Aaron gets too into his work and refuses to sleep for days at a time, resulting in this trope often. If he leaves the house, he may wander off in a trance. Or he puts his hand in the toaster and burns himself. Or he may [[NonNudeBathing get in the shower with all his clothes on]]. Point is, Aaron exhausts himself into idiocy all the time.
27	--> '''Scarecrow:''' How can someone so smart be so stupid?!
28	* ''FanFic/AvatarLegendOfTheGuardian'': All of Team Avatar suffers it during "The Chase." [[spoiler:When they discover Min's true identity as Xia, Zuko's twin sister, they violently reject her and depart. Once they manage to get some sleep and have some time to think things over, with [[WhatTheHellHero help from Toph]], it's clear they would have been more willing to hear her out and listen to what she had to say had Azula not been chasing them and running them ragged for two days solid.]]
29	* ''Fanfic/BrocktonsCelestialForge'': Joe calls it "3 a.m. thinking", because if you are still awake when you need to sleep you will be more prone to making stupid decisions.
30	* ''Fanfic/BurningSecret'': Lincoln loses so much sleep due to his guilt that he begins having goofy hallucinations.
31	* ''Fanfic/CheshireMiraculousLadybug'': Due her exhaustion by long fights and/or the use of Unify, Marinette reveals far more information to Master Fu than she originally planned, with a slip of the tongue resulting in him learning that she knows [[spoiler:how to read the symbols of the Miraculous Grimoire]]. In addition, her sleep-deprived mind ends up giving Master Fu's kwamis [[spoiler:macaroons with power-up potions]] rather than normal sweets, revealing she's a gifted potion maker as well.
32	* ''Fanfic/LucysSecret'': Due to being tired from the late hour, when Lucy wakes up having [[EmbarrassingDampSheets wet the bed]], she forgets to put her pants and undies in the washing machine.
33	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' fanfic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/6129310/chapters/14046931 Sleep Is For The Weak]]'', Marinette and Adrien have been run ragged and are dead on their feet. This leads to Adrien's perfect persona slipping, and he starts making cat puns during class. Marinette, half-awake, hears Chat Noir's voice making cat puns, thinks they're both in costume, and screams about how she's going to skin him alive and wear him as a coat. Then she passes out. The rest of the class is made even ''more'' confused when Adrien, now wide awake from her outburst and able to put two-and-two together, just smiles and kisses her forehead in response, now knowing she's Ladybug.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
37	* ''WesternAnimation/JackJackAttack'': During the latter half of ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'', Kari has to babysit Jack-Jack. However, this is when he develops [[GooGooGodLike his powers]]. By the next day, [[BadlyBatteredBabysitter she is completely exhausted and sleep-deprived]]. When [[BigBad Syndrome]] comes along to take Jack-Jack, Kari believes he's the replacement babysitter and his [[BlatantLies lie]] that [[BroughtToYouByTheLetterS the "S" on his suit]] means "sitter." She hands Jack-Jack off to him without question simply because she's tired and desperate to get away from the baby. When Agent Dicker [[LampshadeHanging quips about how stupid that was]], Kari angrily retorts with the understandable justification that she had to sit for an "exploding baby", which was a thoroughly draining experience.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
41	* ''Film/ACuriousConjunctionOfCoincidences'': In the third act, Jacob, who is supposed to be an expert when it comes to wooden pilings, is so tired from sleep deprivation that he ends up choosing a wrong type of wood for the pilings for the construction of the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Literature]]
45	* ''Literature/AscendanceOfABookworm'': Ferdinand, one of the smartest and most astute characters of the story, is also a TripleShifter. If the plot requires Ferdinand to miss a crucial detail of a situation that he was made aware of, the situation will usually have been intentionally or accidentally presented to him while he was exhausted.
46	* ''Literature/NeroWolfe'': In the short story "Murder Is Corny", Archie is exhausted after having been up for 30 hours. He needs to have a conversation with Susan, and suggests to Wolfe that he have the conversation elsewhere, but Wolfe offers the use of the office. Archie {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}s the fact that if he hadn't been so exhausted, he would have realized that Wolfe intended to eavesdrop on the conversation.
47	* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': Early in the story, the heroes stumble into a novelty statue shop which the reader will immediately peg as Medusa's lair. Percy explains that yes, it was dumb, but they were exhausted and had been staggering through the woods of New Jersey for a long time.
48	* The ''Literature/RevengeOfTheSith'' {{novelization}} explains Anakin Skywalker's poor decision-making and paranoia from [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith the film]] as the result of sleep deprivation. Because Anakin sees the same vision of Padmé dying ''every'' time he sleeps, he stops sleeping altogether and uses the Force to sustain himself.
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
52	%%* "Killer fatigue" has caused so many eliminations on ''Series/TheAmazingRace''.
53	* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': In "The Twist In the Twister", Angela and Hodgins' son won't sleep, preventing them from sleeping, resulting in her trying to use a yogurt-shop discount card instead of her security pass, and him seriously considering putting a carseat on top of a vertical wind tunnel. [[GettingtheBabytoSleep Anything to get the baby to sleep.]]
54	* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': "Living the Dream" gets a SpecialEditionTitle that shows Dexter, badly sleep-deprived from his infant son, bungling every step of his MorningRoutine. It's then PlayedForDrama when he mishandles a court case. In the next episode, he falls asleep while driving and forgets where he hid his latest victim's body parts.
55	* ''Series/{{Friends}}'': After being sleep-deprived from having just given birth to Emma and fearing Ross won't be around to raise their daughter, Rachel impulsively and desperately agrees to marry Joey [[AccidentalProposal when she thought he was proposing]], causing the entire conflict between Joey and Ross.
56	%%* ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'': Blanche once stayed up all night writing a story, leading to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyX4iUrGZGw this]].
57	* ''Series/IShouldntBeAlive'' very common and ''very much'' PlayedForDrama in the many survival stories featured on the show. [[JustifiedTrope Being stranded in remote locations without significant sources of food and water tends to do a number on a person's sanity.]] This results in some survivors making really stupid decisions due to not being able to think straight, such as dropping important items due to no longer being able to carry them, heading in wrong directions, or taking dumb risks that result in injuries are often common in the more insane cases of the show.
58	* Makes a couple of appearances in ''Series/{{MASH}}'':
59	** In Season 2's "[[Recap/MashS2E5DrPierceAndMrHyde Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde]]", Hawkeye has been operating for so long that he is unable to sleep. Among his exhaustion-induced ideas are [[ItMakesSenseInContext shipping a latrine to North Korea]] and sending a telegram to President Truman reading "Who's responsible?".
60	** In Season 4's "[[Recap/MashS4E4TheLateCaptainPierce The Late Captain Pierce]]", Radar is on R&R because of overwork, leading to actions such as putting carbon paper in the latrines.
61	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
62	** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E12WakingMoments Waking Moments]]", everyone has nightmares. In Neelix's case, his nightmare kept him awake for the rest of the night, so he serves Tom Paris a cup of cooking oil.
63	** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'':, Denobulans like Dr. Phlox don't sleep for a full year outside their six-day hibernation cycles. When a medical emergency forces the crew to wake Phlox up from hibernation, the results are ''hilarious''.
64	--->'''Phlox:''' We're going to need Regulan blood worms.\
65	'''Mayweather:''' [[OhCrap What?!]]\
66	'''Phlox:''' They're excellent at toxin filtration.\
67	'''Nurse:''' Uh... which container are they in?\
68	'''Phlox:''' [[SuddenlyShouting No, fresh ones, will be better!]] ''(goes to the intercom while Mayweather makes a ThisIsGonnaSuck face)'' [[LargeHam Set a course for Regulus, maximum warp!]]
69	* ''[[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody The Suite Life on Deck]]'': When the gang locks themselves in the engine room to stop the ship from running into a pod of whales moving by, Moseby tells them that they're going to be left without air-conditioning -- something that takes a toll on all of them. As the heat rises during their sit-in, Marcus gets so hungry and exhausted that he falls for London's obvious ploy to get in by [[DeliveryGuyInfiltration pretending to be a pizza delivery guy]]. She successfully gets in, but since it was [[TheDitz London]], [[DidntThinkThisThrough she didn't really have a plan on getting them out of the engine room]].
70	* ''Series/{{Tweenies}}'': Happens with Milo in ''Bad Mood''.
71	* ''Series/{{Victorious}}'': {{Exploited\|Trope}}. Tori starts seeing a mysterious girl named Ponnie around school, who disappears whenever other people are around. Since she's tired after working on her school projects and being kept up at night by her sick sister, her friends assume this trope is in play and that she just needs to get some rest. Turns out, [[CassandraTruth Ponnie is real]] and is [[GasLighting deliberately trying to make it look like Tori is crazy]].
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Music]]
75	* The Music/BarenakedLadies song "Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" is about a man too exhausted to think straight trying to drive home, and getting into a fatal car accident as a direct result.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Music Videos]]
79	* ''Music/CatHairballs'': Stimpy is being used to farm hairballs via licking "fuel" off of various body parts then hwarfing the results onto a conveyor belt, where the hairballs are then stamped by Ren. Though Stimpy is high energy at first, all the licking and hwarfing proves to be extremely physically taxing. By the end, Stimpy has been completely licked clean and is completely burnt out from it all, which results in Stimpy jumping on the conveyor belt and trying to hwarf one more time. Resulting in passing out on said conveyor belt and getting brutally stamped on the ass.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Web Animation]]
83	* ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'': In [[WebAnimation/RedVsBlueTheShisnoTrilogy Season 15]], Wash is completely exhausted and loopy after days of [[spoiler:being locked in his armor by Temple without receiving food or water]]. He is generally disconnected from reality during that time and says many things that he wouldn't in a clearer head. [[spoiler: This also leads to him walking out in the middle of gunfire without a care in the world, ending with him getting shot in the neck.]]
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Webcomics]]
87	* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}:''
88	** Relentless TripleShifter Bill Raibert hasn't been ''too'' affected by this despite the sheer sleep deprivation he goes through, but he knows the risks and is in a hurry to try and solve things before he can fall into a dumb mistake that a two-hour nap could've avoided. And even then he sometimes [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff2400/fc02349.htm catches himself on the verge of it]].
89	--->'''Bill:''' No answer from Clippy or the plane. Unplanned visit. Hmm. The compound does have defenses and a missile battery... This is why I hate working when exhausted. I have a hammer. I have a problem that can be solved with a hammer. At some point I'm going to be too tired to think of a solution that doesn't involve a hammer.
90	** Niomi cautions a worn-out and confused Mr de Morel that instead of chasing down [[GuileHero Sam]] in his current state, he should go and get some sleep, because people who catch up to Sam in that state tend to regret it.
91	* ''Webcomic/ThePetriDish'': In one strip, Thaddeus is kept awake by [[AmusingAlien Gwog]] so he goes to the lab the next day tired and [[ComedicUnderwearExposure having forgotten his pants]].
92	* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': This is implied to be a factor is some of the poor decisions made by Lalli in Chapter 8 of Adventure I, during which he's explicitly doing a morning scouting shift after pulling an all-nighter ''and'' performing a magical ritual for the dog beast from the previous chapter.
93	* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'' has [[https://xkcd.com/622/ this comic about sleep-deprived hallucinations]], and [[https://xkcd.com/776/ this comic about sleep-deprived irrational belief you are having sleep-deprived hallucinations]].
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Web Original]]
97	* ''Website/NotAlwaysWorking'': The last two lines of [[https://notalwaysright.com/last-shift-shifty-sausage/59347/ this story]] imply that the clerk was too sleep-deprived from overwork to understand that the submitter ''wasn't buying alcohol or cigarettes'', only that they didn't want to show ID (because they didn't need to).
98	-->Despite his boss's ranting, he has fallen asleep with his head on the counter.\
99	'''Manager:''' ... [[HeelRealization I'll talk to him about shifts]].
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Web Video]]
103	* ''WebVideo/SwordArtOnlineAbridged'': Unlike in [[Literature/SwordArtOnline canon]], [[BigBad Kayaba]]'s plan was ultimately boiled down to how sleep-deprived he was after working three weeks without so much as a wink of sleep[[note]]which would be long enough to ''kill'' someone[[/note]] to finish ''Sword Art Online''. The game was ChristmasRushed and he needed to get it done after already being delayed twice. Thus, he busted his ass to get it ready for release. Unfortunately, this resulted in causing a glitch that killed the players when their avatars died, and [[SanitySlippage Kayaba's mind was still in shambles]] when he was trying to think of a way to fix it after people started dying from it.
104	-->'''Kayaba:''' Next thing you know your [[VideoGameTutorial Tutorial NPC]] is nowhere to be found, and Players are dropping like Dorito-encrusted flies. Now, in this case, any '''sane''' man would simply turn off the servers before anyone else got hurt, but because you've now been awake long enough to think the government is run by "Flubar, King of the MoleMen," the best idea that comes to your mind is to double, triple, and quadruple down. So you lock everyone in the game, tell them they'll die if they don't finish it, [[IMeantToDoThat and try to make it look like this is all part of your "master plan" instead of an ever-spiraling series of events that you have long since lost control of]].
105	* ''WebVideo/WhatTheFuckIsWrongWithYou'': Numerous episodes feature Nash and Tara being sent news stories in which businesses were conned into playing along with very obvious pranks or outright scams - to the point that the boss of a fast-food restaurant ordered his entire workforce to break every single window in the building for fear of a nonexistent gas leak. Tara wonders why none of the employees would question the logic of this decision, while Nash points out that the employees were minimum wage workers so beaten down by the long hours that they didn't have the will to do anything but follow orders.
106	[[/folder]]
107
108	[[folder:Western Animation]]
109	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "Goliad", Princess Bubblegum is loopy and spaced-out after being up for 83 hours straight working on the creation of Goliad, a nigh-immortal candy sphinx with incredible intelligence and psychic powers who will serve as a back-up ruler in case anything happens to the Princess. Thus, she rather unwisely trusts [[IdiotHero Finn and Jake]] to teach Goliad to be a good leader while she goes and takes a nap. Finn and Jake proceed to accidentally teach Goliad that MightMakesRight and turn her into a tyrant.
110	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': "The Mess" has Gumball and Darwin stay up all night watching an internet video, and the next day they constantly black out and proceed to do random things such as build a meat snowman.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'': In "The Sleepover", Bluey and Bingo's younger cousin Muffin is adjusting to an older child's sleeping patterns (that is, no longer taking a nap during the day). Due to sleep deprivation, she spends most of the episode acting [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a lot like a very drunk person]], doing things like picking fights with inanimate objects and yelling random nonsense.
112	--> '''Muffin''': '''''[[NonSequitur COCONUTS HAVE WATER IN THEM!]]'''''
113	* ''WesternAnimation/DocMcStuffins'': Doc stays up late at her slumber party in one episode, so she's sleepy in the morning and she pours orange juice into her cereal instead of milk.
114	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', Edd stays up all night building a model, and when Ed and Eddy (and many of the other kids) try to use his brain, they find too late that said brain wasn't firing on all cylinders with the advice he gave them.
115	-->'''Rolf:''' Ed-boy, a moment of your time? [[ItMakesSenseInContext Never use hot wax to soothe enraged lobsters]]! Thank you.
116	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': In "Sock Opera", Dipper tries to figure out the mysteries of a laptop late into the night, causing him to become sleep-deprived. Because of his, he makes the mistake of agreeing to a [[DealWithTheDevil deal]] with Bill Cipher.
117	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
118	** Apu once worked for four straight days at the Kwik-E-Mart without sleep. By the end of it he thought he was a hummingbird. There's videotape evidence of that.
119	** Homer (who's already stupid) is sleep-deprived because his baby daughter Maggie is keeping him awake at night and he mistakes Maggie for Marge (his wife) and Lisa (his eldest daughter) for Maggie.
120	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E1FearOfAKrabbyPattyShellOfAMan Fear of a Krabby Patty]]", Plankton tries to Invoke this by baiting Mr. Krabs into staying open 24 hours a day in order to exhaust Spongebob enough for him to spill the formula. Mr. Krabs takes the bait, but even after 10 days Spongebob is none the worse for wear. Plankton increases the pressure by placing a telephone order for 10,000 Krabby Patties under the name "[[SueDonym Peter Lankton]]" (this trope probably being to blame for Mr. Krabs falling for that), and after 33 days of working on that order, Spongebob snaps to having a phobia of Krabby Patties and hallucinating everyone as a talking Patty.
121	* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS1E03TemporalEdict Temporal Edict]]" Captain Freeman learns of the existence of "buffer time" (crew members padding their estimates of how long it takes to get things done). Furious at people apparently slacking off, she enacts a new policy in which everyone must perform back-to-back tasks in the minimum amount of time. Within a week, everyone (except Boimler, perhaps the biggest workaholic on the ''Cerritos'') is exhausted from overwork and making stupid mistakes, one of which causes a diplomatic incident and an invasion by hostile aliens with the crew too tired to fight back.
122	[[/folder]]
123	[[folder:Real Life]]
124	* Sleep deprivation and airlines working their pilots too hard without sufficient rest has been cited as a contributing factor in a number of crashes.
125	** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colgan_Air_Flight_3407 Colgan Air Flight 3407]] is one example as two fatigued pilots wound up putting their plane into a stall, causing it to crash outside Buffalo, New York.
126	** The crew of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Airways_Flight_808 American International Airways Flight 808]] were found to have acquired a significant sleep debt, which may have contributed to the Captain poorly communicating with his crew and not reacting fast enough.
127	** The captain of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Flight_801 Korean Air Flight 801]] was also found to be fatigued and communicated poorly with his crew.
128	%%* Similarly, rail disasters have been caused by lack of rest.
129	%%** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinton_train_collision Hinton rail disaster]] was believed to have been caused by the driver of a freight train either falling asleep or having a heart attack while at the controls, causing it to crash into a passenger train, not helped by the railroad's lax monitoring of crew health.
130	%%** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selby_rail_crash Selby rail disaster]] of 2001 was an unusual one in that it was not fatigue on the part of any of the drivers of either of the two trains involved, but on the part of a motorist who fell asleep at the wheel and drove his car onto the tracks, where it was run over by one train, causing it to derail and get hit by the second.
131	* Fatigue was also cited as a contributing factor in the ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill Exxon Valdez]]'' oil spill, as the crew had been working long hours with little rest.
132	* In the leadup to the ''Challenger'' Space Shuttle disaster, top managers had been awake a considerable amount of time helping prepare for the launch, leading to decisions being made that resulted in the fatal explosion.
133	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ExhaustionInducedIdiocy