My School Years - College (Part 2)

Studying was, of course, a special problem. Thanks to the medication I was able to establish a regime in which I would nap for, say twenty minutes, and then put in about an hour of study. I must emphasize that this was only possible because of the Dexedrine I was taking, not necessarily in accordance with the prescribed amounts. Nevertheless no amount of medication could get me to remember the names of cases and I had to depend on my ability to recall and recite the related principle. This is still the case and during my active practice I had it posed a particular problem especially when I appeared before the Court of Appeal. Going to lectures was pretty much a waste of time as I couldn’t keep my eyes open for longer than five or ten minutes during each lecture. In truth the lectures themselves were not very helpful as they were often behind where the student needed to be and before long I abandoned them. Fortunately, I was in a group of Jamaicans most of whom were excellent scholars and who appreciated my difficulties in studying and extended themselves to help me to keep up.

During the exams I managed to keep awake for most of the time by taking additional medication before each paper and to my surprise, obtained five “good third class” passes, two “second class” passes, and two ordinary passes, without any failures, although I thought I was certainly going to fail the last paper, Conveyancing, as I fell asleep for at least 10 minutes and was unable to complete the paper.

I should at this stage say something more about EDS which means “Excessive Daytime Sleepiness”. Without medication EDS can come on at any time without warning, as I have said, during light conversation with friends or serious arguments or debates, when attempting to read, although very noticeably , it is more likely to occur where the subject matter is the object of study as opposed to ‘light reading’ such as exciting fiction or comics. As I have also pointed out it may occur when walking or riding a bicycle but on those occasions one feels the temporary loss of balance immediately with all senses alert so that one is able to take compensating action to maintain one’s balance. Similarly, when one is driving a car. At other times, however, the sleep that occurs seems more like a short circuit in the brain and on getting awake it may take quite a few seconds for one to get one’s bearings.One of the important effects which both Dexedrine and Ritalin had on my EDS is that they both caused me to be warned of an impending attack of EDS so that I could take appropriate counter- action, such as taking a short nap before driving or riding, or letting someone else drive, although such evasive action would not always be available where the proposed action would be attending a class or reading although it did help me to establish a regime of study by knowing when I was prone to falling asleep, as it did later in my legal practice.