You’d think that if you were the defendant in a high-stakes criminal trial, you’d be anxious enough to stay awake throughout the proceedings. You’d think you’d do whatever you had to do to stay awake, which buggars the question, why is Trump falling asleep during his court proceedings?
As far as I can see there are three explanations:
Daytime Sleepiness
DAYTIME SLEEPINESS results from a lack of sleep at night. There are two popular reasons that people think we will be sleepy during the day.
One is boredom. If you’re bored, you’re restless, not sleepy. Having been a teacher since 1996 has taught me this.
Another is a large lunch. Most of our Thanksgiving experiences involve eating a large meal in the afternoon, after which people find themselves being drowsy. Naturally, we blame the unusual size of the meal. It’s wrong. It is our circadian rhythm that is to blame. We naturally have a low point in the late afternoon time.
So, Trump isn’t bored by the proceedings, who could be, right? Was he falling asleep during his civil suits with E. Jean Carroll or his NY civil fraud case? No, he wasn’t.
For him to be falling asleep during this trial would mean that he isn’t sleeping well at night. Is this trial keeping him up at night? Is he more worried about this trial than he was about the others?
I guess he could be. This one could mean jail time, right? This one could hurt his electoral chances in November, right?
I’d be worried and having trouble sleeping if it were me, but I’d be worried and having trouble sleeping during the other two trials, too.
Narcissistic Revenge for Narcissistic Wounds
NARCISSISM could cause him to find passive ways of showing contempt for the proceedings. Trials and gag orders are narcissistic wounds that need to be avenged. Sleeping and farting during the trial could be part of a passive-aggressive reaction to the proceedings.
If he can’t say what he thinks of the jurors or the court personnel to intimidate them, he’ll show them all what he thinks of their puny trial and charges by sleeping through them and farting at them.
It could be.
Symptoms of a Progressing Dementia
DEMENTIA disrupts sleep patterns. It is well known, to those who know it well, that people with dementia have difficulty sleeping at night and sleep excessively during the day.
Dementia is a progressive neurological disorder, meaning it gets worse as time goes on. Maybe, Trump wasn’t sleeping during his previous trials because his dementia hadn’t progressed enough for him to be missing sleep at night, but now has.
There is a lot to unpack here. I haven’t made up my mind about the cause in part because there may be no way to determine the cause from the vantage point of the casual observer. No one is reporting on his sleep. He does social media at all hours of the day and night, though, so unless he’s scheduling those late night and early morning screeds, he’s up taping them out with his fat stubbies.
I know everyone loves playing the parlor game of finding evidence for Trump’s supposed dementia, but it is difficult to diagnose from afar. He definitely seems to be demented, but to what degree it has progressed, it is nearly impossible to determine without close examination.
So, what do you think? Have I missed a possible explanation? Is there one that you favor more than the others? Is there evidence that supports one explanation over the others? Let me know in the comments.
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The Psy of Life 
I go with the dementia argument here. Anyway, it’s a bad look for him that will only worsen over time if it continues.
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Howdy Usfman!
They kept Reagan’s dementia under wraps during his last two years in office. Trump’s narcissism won’t let that happen. Like everything else, this is going to go the way of the feculent touch.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Early on, I read conjectures that his handlers have medicated him to help him maintain appropriate control during the proceedings. I still lean that direction, though disrespect and lack of sleep overnight for his screeds and his mental lists of wrongs done him could be doing it, too. I agree his health is poor, so that counts.
But who knows for sure? I agree he needs care and treatment.
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Howdy Ali!
I think that is my biggest point with all of the social media speculation. None of us know. There are many possible explanations. However, it is not a thing a normal person does, so there should be more pressure from real live journalists to get an answer because the consequences are so immense.
Huzzah!
Jack
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The sleeping as a show of disrespect is a good bet, but I think his narcissism goes beyond that. The trial is not being televised, not live streamed. He is not allowed to participate in cross examination of witnesses. He’s even been chastised for muttering too loudly. Other people are doing all the talking, the witness, the lawyers, the judge. They are the focus of attention, not him. What is there to do but sleep?
Imagine his behavior if it was on TV live, and he could confront the witness, comment and interrupt, attempt to dominate and intimidate, and keep the spotlight on himself. He would be wide awake and performing. And what a classic Trump performance it would be.
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It’s clear that Trump’s lawyers do his bidding even at the expense of their own careers. They advance his cockamamie legal arguments whether he’s in the room or not. He could be participating in some form or fashion. There is something very wrong with sleeping during your own court trail.
We get so little information about what is going on with him when he’s not in the spotlight. We don’t know how well or when he sleeps for example. It’s one thing if his sleeping is due to his narcissism; it’s another if it is due to advancing dementia. Those aren’t the only two explanations, but the two most concerning for our immediate future.
Jack
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The narcissism is always a factor with him in any context. How it is playing in this court context and the sleeping could also be simple avoidance of a context in which he is not in control and not surrounded by people who he thinks love him. A scary thing about advancing dementia is that I think many who want to use him as a wrecking ball (Heritage Foundation, et. al.) are not worried about it. Once he has served the purpose as the strong man face of the coup, they will not need him to make decisions, just sign whatever is put in front of him. They can ghost write his social media posts (or, have an AI trained on his past posts do it). At some point, is he becomes unable to appear in public and perform his greatest hits, on TV he could be replaced with a deep fake. They might prefer him as a sort of sock puppet president.
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In fact, that is the plan.
Like everything else, though, it will receive of the feculent touch of Trump. That’s the only reliable thing about him.
Jack
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Or, it may be, that, Trump believes that the, law does NOT, apply to someone as “special” (there goes that, INFLATED ego if his again…) as him, that he isn’t required to be, PRESENT, physically to his own, CRIMINAL trial that he’d, “spaced out”…
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I think there is something to the narcissism explanation to his behavior.
More concerning to me, though, is his apparent advancing dementia. If he’s getting to be so demented that he can’t stay awake during a court proceeding, then he’s going to have a very tough time to do anything meaningful in his life.
In that sense, he is a very sad man. No one around him cares about him enough to do what is necessary given his advancing dementia and florid naricissism.
Jack
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And, being, as, narcissistic as he is, he will, more than likely to, refuse to get, treatment, and, his families, don’t have a clue, of, how his behaviors are, not, “normal”, so, chances of his, getting the medical care he needs, is, slim to, none, and, it’s, more than likely that tje voters are, going to, elect him again, as he has a way, of, getting the masses heated up and, following, him, either way, the U.S. will be, screwed, and, comparing, Biden would BE, the, better choice, but, he’s not, fitted to, rule the country either. I think it all depends on, who the VP candidates are, that would be, the, choices the voter should be, voting for, as, it will be the, VP who takes over, if something were to happen to the, president, elect…
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Howdy Taurus!
I’m not going to continue arguing about Biden’s fitness for office.
Trump’s situation is very pitiful. He’s being actively abused and exploited by the family, “friends,” and employees who surround him for their own gains instead of getting him the care and support he needs. It is one of the more disgusting things to watch unfold in the world media.
You are right about the VP watch. I still maintain that had VP Harris demonstrated during her four years of office that she was capable of reliably continuing Biden’s policies, he would be stepping down to allow her to step up. Just given her campaign in 2016, I had my doubts about her then. At the beginning of the term she was given several special roles that should’ve been high visibility, but we’ve not heard a peep about them since.
One of the issues in the US is that we are not producing high quality politicians in the generations after Obama’s.
Huzzah!
Jack
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He is old and us old farts need our naps. chuq
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I guess Trump put the gas in the windbag if court side reporting is to be believed.
And, they complain about Biden’s age.
Jack
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LOL….did you see that aides surround Biden to help cover is gait? chuq
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Howdy Chuq!
A bit of the Streisand Effect, me thinks.
The thing is nothing that Biden does is anything other than normal for a man his age. The real issue is why isn’t there a younger Democrat presidential candidate available? There wasn’t in 2020, and there isn’t now. What’s wrong with the next generation of political leaders or our country that we haven’t produced anyone of presidential stature other than Biden?
Huzzah!
Jack
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The younger focus on raising money not state craft…..have a good day chuq
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I was thinking his narcissism could be so off-the-charts that he’s not worried about the outcome. He’s known to have a short attention span and without a screen to stimulate his pea-sized intellect, he falls asleep. But who knows?
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Well said, Carol. That is exactly the way his narcissism would work. The indictment and start of the trial would be a narcissistic wound, but he will regress to the mean, meaning, his narcissistic delusion of perfection and exceptions being made for him will reassert itself. I think there is something to the showing contempt for the proceedings argument.
Huzzah!
Jack
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