Sometimes, when I have long drives, my mind just seems to drift. I don’t know what happens, bu my eyes get heavy, and I just get sleepy. To stave off this sleepyness, I usually think of questions to ask the Dopers, but I forget most of them by the time I get where I am going. Anyway, what would be a better way to avoid this driving sleepiness?
I have done many long drives, up to (once) 21.5 hours of straight driving without rest, and multiple 15-18 hour days. I have recently started thinking anything under 6-8 hours isn’t even worth thinking about ahead of time. Here are some things I do to keep awake:
- Have something to snack on (like pretzels) and something to drink from. That alone helps a lot.
- Constantly be trying to figure out exactly where you are and your ETA at your destination given your current speed, etc.
- Look at the road map often to figure out how much further to the next town, etc.
- Get a GPS, I can spend lots of time just playing with it. Plus it provides tons of semi-useful information.
- Don’t listen to CDs or tapes, because this takes no user intervention. Listen to the radio, then you have to find a new station every so often when you go out of range.
- Listen to AM radio. Why? Because you can get a lot of stations, and most of them won’t be talking about anything you’re interested in, so it can take an hour of tuning around to find something you like. But when you do, it may last for hours (unlike FM).
- Singing along to the radio REALLY LOUDLY seems to help a little too!
If I think of more, I’ll add them later. The key is to keep your mind busy.
Listen to the radio and roll down all of the windows to keep cold air blowing on you.
This is what my husband, the truck driver does to keep awake.
Keep your A/C on the “vent” or “fresh” setting to keep fresh air coming in all the time.
My favorite sleep buster is to have a large Big Gulp of soda with ice. This helps keep me up in two ways: First of all, I occasionally take a sip of a bracing, cold drink, and secondly, the ice causes condensation on the outside of the cup…I run my fingertips over the condensation and then rub the cold wet fingertips into the corners of my eyes.
Another “game” I occasionally play to keep me awake is, at each mile marker, to think of something that that number is relevant to.
It goes without saying, of course, that you shouldn’t drive when you are tired (I know that’s not always practical, but you shouldn’t)
Ski’s mentioned one of my favorite foods – having a snack. I like to knock out a bag of Life Savers or Starburst on long drives.
Chewing gum keeps you from falling asleep.
whenever I start to nod off, I pull over to have a 5 minute nap. Works like a charm
Do they sell caffeinated chewing gums in the US? I keep a pack in my car. But usually I just pull over and take a 15-minute nap. Better late than dead.
I have fallen asleep at the wheel a couple of times, luckily without serious consequences, but drowsiness is traitorous and you take the long nod without realizing it. Since then, as soon as I feel sleepy I pull over and take a short nap. It makes all the difference in the world even if it is just a few minutes. I have also been told to get out of the car and do some physical exercise.
…Third, after you drink it you have to pee REAllY bad - and there’s nothing like having a full bladder to keep you alert! Then when you get someplace where you can void, you get to stretch your legs and restock on the snacks/drinks and go through it all over again.
I make the car really cold with the A/C or open a window. I find that getting out of the car for 10-15 minutes at a well lit place (like a truck stop) can help.
My best weapon is not to drive late. I do much better getting up at 4:00 am and driving for 16 hours to arrive at sundown then I do getting up at 8:00 am and driving until midnight.
As far as the radio goes - if I have music, it has to be interactive - something I can singly loudly to. I also find that books on tape, if the story is good, are a nice tool.
i saw a booklet a few days back, think it was from innovations.co.uk they had this thing like a hearing aid, you put it behind your ear… when it senses that u are sleepy ( when head nods) it gives out a loud beep to warn you.
Sometimes you don’t even need the radio. One late night drive through the length of Virginia, I sang almost the entire soundtrack to Les Miserable with the radio off.
And fourth, if you’re a guy, you can unzip your fly, pull out your scrotum, and rest the icy-cold cup between your legs against your testicles. Hoo boy.
Cervaise, you’re unusual. Don’t ever change… :eek:
—grin— I’ve gone a LOT of work days, on the clock for 24 hours. It’s that awful drive home just as the sun has come back up that is brutal. Loud rock and roll helped. I’ve fallen asleep perhaps a dozen times and been awakened by the rumble strips every time but one.
The one time, I was moving in a sharp diagonal RIGHT towards the cement barrier, and I awoke in time to swerve back. Scared me so badly, I pulled off and went to sleep for a while. The longest I’ve gone without sleep was 41 hours, and I had a 2 1/2 hour drive home in heavy traffic at about hour 27.
Caffeine works, before I drive. It’ll crank me up for a good 3-5 hours, so if the drive is about that, I am good to go. Otherwise, the crash after ( pardon the bad pun ) isn’t worth it. I’ve never been able to catnap really in the car, it’s always been the last resort.
I used to be afraid of dying behind the wheel.
Cartooniverse
It is really quite dangerous to drive while you’re tired. Drowsy driving causes approximately 100,000 car accidents per year. This site http://www.britishsleepfoundation.org.uk/driving.htm says that the radio and open window tricks are relatively ineffective.
Since you’re looking for advice and suggestions, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
Far be it from me to diverge from the consensus here, which in this case appears to be reckless disregard for human life. Keeping with that theme, I’m going to suggest that you take action to try to limit the amount of time you spend behind the wheel while drowsy. My advice?
Floor it.
That’s right. If you feel like you’re about to nod off, start driving as fast as you possibly can. This will allow you to arrive at your destination sooner, thereby reducing the amount of time you spend behind the wheel while at risk of dosing off. In summary:
Driving faster = less time behind the wheel = lower probability of falling asleep = really good idea
You may also want to look at this:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/drowsy_driving1/drowsy.html