It's a bit disconcerting when you catch yourself zoning out while doing something. Seconds, maybe even minutes go by as your mind drifts off, and your body, hands and perhaps even feet just keep going. Hopefully, this happens while you are doing something safe or unimportant, but fortunately, internet users have compiled the times' something a bit more silly happened.
People were asked to share their own stories with mental autopilot in a Twitter thread that went viral. So make sure you are seated somewhere comfortable, scrolling through and upvoting your favorites. And if you want to learn about more bizarre things people have done, you can find more stories on this topic here and here.
Image credits: UberFacts
This post may include affiliate links.
Firstly, you might wonder why our brains decide that we shouldn’t be concentrating at a given time. Scientists refer to this feature (or bug) as Default Mode Network or DMN, though the less-specific mind-wandering can also be used. Basically, if the correct circumstances are met, like doing an activity you have ample experience with, your brain will “push” the taste to the background, allowing you to start thinking about something else, even when you don’t actually want this to happen.
Driving is one of the most common activities that causes people’s minds to wander. If the individual is an experienced driver and isn’t generally stressed while on the road, they may quickly enter an auto-pilot-like state. This isn’t necessarily a danger to other drivers or pedestrians, but the individual might end up driving to the wrong location or missing an exit or turn. But some studies indicate that up to half of road accidents are the result of one or more parties not paying attention behind the wheel.
As people age, their mind tends to wander less, as researchers have found evidence that older adults are more conscientious than younger adults. This is directly linked with less mind-wandering, however, other personality traits can still influence how “present” or not a person is when doing a familiar task. For example, people with ADHD are more prone to spontaneous mind wandering.
Am I the only one who finds it irritating when your glasses steam up, and then some person goes 'your glasses are steaming up!' No genius I just thought it was foggy inside!
I did that while talking on the phone. And the guy I was talking to was giving me tips where to look.
But this shouldn’t be construed to mean that one’s mind wandering is a sign of attention deficiencies in general. We spend almost a quarter of the time thinking about things that are completely unrelated to the task or situation in front of us. This is somewhat frightening, considering the amount of time we spend, driving, cooking with fire and knives, and other activities where even a minor slip-up can have grave consequences.
Oh I feel this. My spouse and I had a bad round of Covid in March 2020 and were sick for months. Our tv remote was lost for 9 damn months afterwards and we *still* occasionally run into movies we 100% forgot we watched while sick.
Similar to mind-wandering, many people also have stories of general absent-mindedness. During this time, their body starts to do something automatically. These processes are called automatisms to reflect how the body performs them naturally. Interestingly, when we make a mistake during automation, we tend to blame the body part, not ourselves. So if you are daydreaming about a vacation while sorting papers and get a papercut, you might consider your hand, not your lapse in attention, responsible.
When I used to wear contacts, sometimes I'd forget that I already took it out. So there I was pinching my eyes, trying to remove it.
When I was a kid, I woke up one morning to go to school and it took me a full minute to realize that the day before was the last day of class. Best surprise I ever gave myself!
I once put a plate in the fridge (empty plate) but I don’t remember doing it. Not really autopilot because I may have been having an absent seizure lol
I'm picturing your stomach giving you instructions "turn left, now right... aahh I see the arches! We are here! hehehe"
I do this sort of thing regularly. Most of the time i forget what i just said and have to ask, "wait what did i just say"
Well, if that wasn't a common occurrence, they wouldn't have built in the safety feature.
Once i put my remote in my purse and took it to work. Took me forever to find that damn remote later that night
Note: this post originally had 62 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I keep on trying to "swipe" to turn pages on books and magazines these days, not realizing that I'm actually interacting with something tangible and not just my touchscreen 😄
I had the irrepressible urge to “pinch” a physical map to zoom the other day and I still haven’t stopped laughing at myself over it
Load More Replies...
I have one. Went to bed early and woke up an hour later at 10pm, thinking it was morning. Walked downstairs, let the dog out of the kitchen, then stood looking at the clock on the oven for about 5 minutes confused about why it said 10 o'clock on it. Got a plate out for my breakfast etc. Then went back upstairs, realised what the hell I'd just done, and went to put the poor confused dog back to bed!
A few months ago, I got up around 3:00 AM to feed my infant twins. I usually leave one in the crib while I feed the other. On this particular night, I went to put Twin B back in her crib only to find it was already occupied by Twin A. I look over at Twin A’s crib and it was empty. I panicked and woke my husband up thinking someone had stolen one of kids from their crib. My husband rolls his eyes and grabs Twin B out of my arms. I put Twin A in the wrong crib. Didn’t even realize there were two babies in one bed when I picked up Twin B.
I used to open up the office in the mornings. One morning, entered the alarm code and it didn’t work. Tried again. Same. Kept trying, getting more frantic knowing the alarm company would soon get alerted and picturing a swat team arriving, guns drawn. I was entering my bank access number.
woke up late for school. Panicked. threw on my clothes, raced out the door, was pulling into the parking lot when I remembered that I had, in fact, graduated the year before.
One Monday i was driving to work, wondering why there is no traffic. Almost at the office, heard on the radio two RJs sharing their plans for the public holiday. I got up at 6:30 for this.
Always me! "See you on Monday!" "Hugh? Public holiday on Monday!" "Oh... i forget it... again."
Load More Replies...
Looking for my glasses, frustrated that I couldn't see, I found my glasses thought "Aha! These will help me search!", Put them on, then continued looking for my glasses. Dunno how long I kept searching for exactly, but it's longer than I'm proud of.
Not my story but a friend ones. She was driving her car and her sister on the passenger seat talked about something. She couldn't hear her sister well because of the radio playing music. So she reached over to her sister to turn up her volume.. 🥳
My grandma called me and left a message on my phone… to tell me that I had left my phone at her house!!
when I was in high school, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was time for school. it was like 1am but I just thought I woke up before my alarm I guess? Showered, ate breakfast, brushed teeth, got dressed, etc. My mom woke me from my stupor as I was walking out the front door to catch the bus. Was very bizarre trying to go back to sleep after that.
I used to work at a bank branch and went in one day, waited about 30 minutes and when no one else showed up I texted my boss asking who was supposed to open with me. He said "dude, it's Sunday" lol. I still find in hysterical.
Not me, one of my friends. He went to work, parked his car, but when he finished he could not find it and he was looking for two hours. He went to the police, filed it as stolen and claimed compensation from his insurance. Two weeks later, he was on his way to work on a bicycle, rode by the opposite side of a highway and he saw his car. He had forgotten he had parked it there at the first place.
First one: getting ready to do dishes, putting them in the sink to soak for a bit. Saw a glass of juice on the counter. I had actually just poured it but my brain thought it was old, so I dumped it out. Not in the empty sink next to it or even in the sink filled with soapy water, I poured it out on the counter. I just stood there wondering what just happened. Second one: after my apartment building had a fire drill, they locked the elevator out so I took the stairs, walked to the forth floor, used memory to get to my apartment, and then couldn't figure out why my key wouldn't fit in the lock. Turns out I got off at the wrong floor.
My husband's best one came from him making coffee in the keurig. I could hear what was going wrong as the dripping sounded off, but decided to have some fun. He came back to the kitchen and started swearing. He forgot to put the cup under the dripping part.
Load More Replies...
Once my mom was having salad and her coffee, and accidentally poured a splash or italian dressing in her coffee and creamer in her salad.
Took my comfoter to be washed. Put the comforter on the wash table, opened washer, put in detergent, scent beads, softener and all the other nice smelly stuff, closed the lid, started the washer and left. 1 hr later, I go to the washer and see comforter on the table. Yes, I just spent 1 hr. washing some of the nicest smelling AIR!
I've tried opening the front door with my car key fob (didn't work). I've also been confused when my trunk didn't open for me when my key fob was inside the car already.
I was in my local café and asked for a plate of milk and a cup of toast 🤣 Also before I went into a shop I tied my dog outside but I was also holding a stuffed toy dog I'd won in a grab machine and as I entered I asked one of the workers if it would be okay to bring my dog in if I carried him as I only had to grab a couple things..The worker looked at me holding the toy dog and said yes of course, he looks like a good boy. She started laughing and when I realised what happened I nearly died of embarrassment 🤣 And yes she did allow me to carry in my real dog! I don't like leaving him tied up outside in case he's stolen.
Very often: driving home from work and "lost time"... not so often: searching my keys or smartphone and finding it inside the wardrobe. Once: fire in a basket full of clothes (dad fall asleep in the bathtube and lost his cigarette into the basket) right next to the bathtube, running to the kitchen and getting a buket full of water... hm, okey, 30 years later i'm still loughing about this! Oh and waiting for automatic completion for words or sentences on a desktop computer...
I worked as a copy editor. Placed my ex's birthday as "Accepted date" in a journal article. After a visit from the Journal's editor, everyone just wanted to know what date that was. Haven't told anyone till just now. :)
More a sleep deprivation story than an autopilot one: I made a dhaal recipe I'd made several times before and couldn't figure out why this time I had to shield myself with the pot lid during the pureeing step. A whole 3 days later, while I'm opening the fridge, it hits me: I used the beaters instead of the immersion blender.
When I was in college I worked full time so I was always sleep deprived. Here are some of the high lights: Woke up peeing in the trash can - in the kitchen, forgot to pull my underwear down sitting on the toilet, poured coffee grounds in my coffee, poured coffee in my cereal, took a casserole out of the oven with bare hands - 2nd degree burns from that one (it was my favorite casserole dish and I didn't drop it, I made it to the counter. ) Stopped at a green light and went when it turned red. These are just a few I can remember off the top of my head.
On a beautiful sunny day, I was waiting for a guy to bring out a car part I was buying from him.. I was standing near a fence with cows behind it and a big sign 'Electric Fence"... I have no idea why, but I just touched it... Duh!
My friend had a blackberry at the dawn of the smartphone era. He let me use it briefly and I kept trying to do smartphone things with it, like zoom by spreading my fingers apart. He kept telling me, "not a smartphone". I did not have a smartphone at the time and had never used one.
Now this thread confused me so much that I almost tried to fill my phone with water and not my glas.... HELP!
Contacts! I forgot. Once I was pawing at my eyeball trying to remove my contact and it took me that long to realize I'd already taken that one out. 😑
Pulled up to my mother's house and pressed the garage door opener in my car and being almost aggravated when MY garage door remote didn't open her door.
I have two. 1) I drive a manual transmission vehicle but we also own an automatic transmission vehicle that I drive intermittently. I have found myself grabbing at air trying to shift the automatic into gear and also stomping on the "imaginary" clutch pedal when I stop suddenly. 2) I have put a plate in the freezer for no good reason other than I thought I needed to put something away.
A few days ago I was walking out of school at the end of the day and was making sure i had all my stuff with me. I then realized I had no idea where my phone was, and started to panic. It wasn't in my pocket, wasn't in my backpack...it was in my hand. I was literally texting my friend as i was looking for it lmao
In my defence, I had been looking at pictures of Japanese toilets, which can do everything except microwave my meal. Anyway, there I was standing in front of my toilet wondering whether to flush it or wash my hands in it.
Not many pple with glasses here apparently I didnt see stories of looking fir those when you are actually wearing them, which happens to me at least once a week
Trying to ring a friend-----on the keypad on the desk top computer. Put the butter in the freezer. Put the milk in the freezer. And put the coffee jar ( instant) in the freezer. Drove to the wrong job. Could not work out where my house had gone......I was in the wrong street.
Some of these are very funny. The ones about driving are so dangerous though. My dad used to literally fall asleep while driving home. Thankfully he never had an accident, but very scary
No one tried to chug two paracetamol with a vodka thinking it was water? (from a friend)
Holy cow, does that guy still have a functioning liver?
Load More Replies...
I always put the box of cereal and milk away at the same time, so I constantly put cereal in the fridge and milk in the pantry. My dad always stops me before I get too far lol
WARNING! MOST DEFINITELY NOT FUNNY! IN FACT, ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC Policewoman gets off the elevator on the wrong floor and walks into what is therefore the wrong room. Sees a man (dammit, it HAD to be a black man) sitting on the couch. Panics and shoots him dead. She was convicted for a degree of murder which could've meant life in prison, but based on the victim-impact statement of the deceased man's brother, "ONLY" gets ten years in prison.
This actually happened. She thought it was her apartment and murdered the man.
Load More Replies... I keep on trying to "swipe" to turn pages on books and magazines these days, not realizing that I'm actually interacting with something tangible and not just my touchscreen 😄
I had the irrepressible urge to “pinch” a physical map to zoom the other day and I still haven’t stopped laughing at myself over it
Load More Replies... I have one. Went to bed early and woke up an hour later at 10pm, thinking it was morning. Walked downstairs, let the dog out of the kitchen, then stood looking at the clock on the oven for about 5 minutes confused about why it said 10 o'clock on it. Got a plate out for my breakfast etc. Then went back upstairs, realised what the hell I'd just done, and went to put the poor confused dog back to bed!
A few months ago, I got up around 3:00 AM to feed my infant twins. I usually leave one in the crib while I feed the other. On this particular night, I went to put Twin B back in her crib only to find it was already occupied by Twin A. I look over at Twin A’s crib and it was empty. I panicked and woke my husband up thinking someone had stolen one of kids from their crib. My husband rolls his eyes and grabs Twin B out of my arms. I put Twin A in the wrong crib. Didn’t even realize there were two babies in one bed when I picked up Twin B.
I used to open up the office in the mornings. One morning, entered the alarm code and it didn’t work. Tried again. Same. Kept trying, getting more frantic knowing the alarm company would soon get alerted and picturing a swat team arriving, guns drawn. I was entering my bank access number.
woke up late for school. Panicked. threw on my clothes, raced out the door, was pulling into the parking lot when I remembered that I had, in fact, graduated the year before.
One Monday i was driving to work, wondering why there is no traffic. Almost at the office, heard on the radio two RJs sharing their plans for the public holiday. I got up at 6:30 for this.
Always me! "See you on Monday!" "Hugh? Public holiday on Monday!" "Oh... i forget it... again."
Load More Replies... Looking for my glasses, frustrated that I couldn't see, I found my glasses thought "Aha! These will help me search!", Put them on, then continued looking for my glasses. Dunno how long I kept searching for exactly, but it's longer than I'm proud of.
Not my story but a friend ones. She was driving her car and her sister on the passenger seat talked about something. She couldn't hear her sister well because of the radio playing music. So she reached over to her sister to turn up her volume.. 🥳
My grandma called me and left a message on my phone… to tell me that I had left my phone at her house!!
when I was in high school, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was time for school. it was like 1am but I just thought I woke up before my alarm I guess? Showered, ate breakfast, brushed teeth, got dressed, etc. My mom woke me from my stupor as I was walking out the front door to catch the bus. Was very bizarre trying to go back to sleep after that.
I used to work at a bank branch and went in one day, waited about 30 minutes and when no one else showed up I texted my boss asking who was supposed to open with me. He said "dude, it's Sunday" lol. I still find in hysterical.
Not me, one of my friends. He went to work, parked his car, but when he finished he could not find it and he was looking for two hours. He went to the police, filed it as stolen and claimed compensation from his insurance. Two weeks later, he was on his way to work on a bicycle, rode by the opposite side of a highway and he saw his car. He had forgotten he had parked it there at the first place.
First one: getting ready to do dishes, putting them in the sink to soak for a bit. Saw a glass of juice on the counter. I had actually just poured it but my brain thought it was old, so I dumped it out. Not in the empty sink next to it or even in the sink filled with soapy water, I poured it out on the counter. I just stood there wondering what just happened. Second one: after my apartment building had a fire drill, they locked the elevator out so I took the stairs, walked to the forth floor, used memory to get to my apartment, and then couldn't figure out why my key wouldn't fit in the lock. Turns out I got off at the wrong floor.
My husband's best one came from him making coffee in the keurig. I could hear what was going wrong as the dripping sounded off, but decided to have some fun. He came back to the kitchen and started swearing. He forgot to put the cup under the dripping part.
Load More Replies... Once my mom was having salad and her coffee, and accidentally poured a splash or italian dressing in her coffee and creamer in her salad.
Took my comfoter to be washed. Put the comforter on the wash table, opened washer, put in detergent, scent beads, softener and all the other nice smelly stuff, closed the lid, started the washer and left. 1 hr later, I go to the washer and see comforter on the table. Yes, I just spent 1 hr. washing some of the nicest smelling AIR!
I've tried opening the front door with my car key fob (didn't work). I've also been confused when my trunk didn't open for me when my key fob was inside the car already.
I was in my local café and asked for a plate of milk and a cup of toast 🤣 Also before I went into a shop I tied my dog outside but I was also holding a stuffed toy dog I'd won in a grab machine and as I entered I asked one of the workers if it would be okay to bring my dog in if I carried him as I only had to grab a couple things..The worker looked at me holding the toy dog and said yes of course, he looks like a good boy. She started laughing and when I realised what happened I nearly died of embarrassment 🤣 And yes she did allow me to carry in my real dog! I don't like leaving him tied up outside in case he's stolen.
Very often: driving home from work and "lost time"... not so often: searching my keys or smartphone and finding it inside the wardrobe. Once: fire in a basket full of clothes (dad fall asleep in the bathtube and lost his cigarette into the basket) right next to the bathtube, running to the kitchen and getting a buket full of water... hm, okey, 30 years later i'm still loughing about this! Oh and waiting for automatic completion for words or sentences on a desktop computer...
I worked as a copy editor. Placed my ex's birthday as "Accepted date" in a journal article. After a visit from the Journal's editor, everyone just wanted to know what date that was. Haven't told anyone till just now. :)
More a sleep deprivation story than an autopilot one: I made a dhaal recipe I'd made several times before and couldn't figure out why this time I had to shield myself with the pot lid during the pureeing step. A whole 3 days later, while I'm opening the fridge, it hits me: I used the beaters instead of the immersion blender.
When I was in college I worked full time so I was always sleep deprived. Here are some of the high lights: Woke up peeing in the trash can - in the kitchen, forgot to pull my underwear down sitting on the toilet, poured coffee grounds in my coffee, poured coffee in my cereal, took a casserole out of the oven with bare hands - 2nd degree burns from that one (it was my favorite casserole dish and I didn't drop it, I made it to the counter. ) Stopped at a green light and went when it turned red. These are just a few I can remember off the top of my head.
On a beautiful sunny day, I was waiting for a guy to bring out a car part I was buying from him.. I was standing near a fence with cows behind it and a big sign 'Electric Fence"... I have no idea why, but I just touched it... Duh!
My friend had a blackberry at the dawn of the smartphone era. He let me use it briefly and I kept trying to do smartphone things with it, like zoom by spreading my fingers apart. He kept telling me, "not a smartphone". I did not have a smartphone at the time and had never used one.
Now this thread confused me so much that I almost tried to fill my phone with water and not my glas.... HELP!
Contacts! I forgot. Once I was pawing at my eyeball trying to remove my contact and it took me that long to realize I'd already taken that one out. 😑
Pulled up to my mother's house and pressed the garage door opener in my car and being almost aggravated when MY garage door remote didn't open her door.
I have two. 1) I drive a manual transmission vehicle but we also own an automatic transmission vehicle that I drive intermittently. I have found myself grabbing at air trying to shift the automatic into gear and also stomping on the "imaginary" clutch pedal when I stop suddenly. 2) I have put a plate in the freezer for no good reason other than I thought I needed to put something away.
A few days ago I was walking out of school at the end of the day and was making sure i had all my stuff with me. I then realized I had no idea where my phone was, and started to panic. It wasn't in my pocket, wasn't in my backpack...it was in my hand. I was literally texting my friend as i was looking for it lmao
In my defence, I had been looking at pictures of Japanese toilets, which can do everything except microwave my meal. Anyway, there I was standing in front of my toilet wondering whether to flush it or wash my hands in it.
Not many pple with glasses here apparently I didnt see stories of looking fir those when you are actually wearing them, which happens to me at least once a week
Trying to ring a friend-----on the keypad on the desk top computer. Put the butter in the freezer. Put the milk in the freezer. And put the coffee jar ( instant) in the freezer. Drove to the wrong job. Could not work out where my house had gone......I was in the wrong street.
Some of these are very funny. The ones about driving are so dangerous though. My dad used to literally fall asleep while driving home. Thankfully he never had an accident, but very scary
No one tried to chug two paracetamol with a vodka thinking it was water? (from a friend)
Holy cow, does that guy still have a functioning liver?
Load More Replies... I always put the box of cereal and milk away at the same time, so I constantly put cereal in the fridge and milk in the pantry. My dad always stops me before I get too far lol
WARNING! MOST DEFINITELY NOT FUNNY! IN FACT, ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIC Policewoman gets off the elevator on the wrong floor and walks into what is therefore the wrong room. Sees a man (dammit, it HAD to be a black man) sitting on the couch. Panics and shoots him dead. She was convicted for a degree of murder which could've meant life in prison, but based on the victim-impact statement of the deceased man's brother, "ONLY" gets ten years in prison.
This actually happened. She thought it was her apartment and murdered the man.
Load More Replies...
