We were helping to move a friend from one house to another years ago. It was all rushed with little time to do or plan anything … we had to move truckloads towing trailers full of all their things and drive 400km to make a deadline. And we had to start by driving to them 500km away first! And it all had to happen within 20 hours … it was complete insanity. I ended up driving, packing, working, then driving again non-stop for about 30 hours to everything to the new house. And midway through the trip of hauling everything, we drove through the biggest lightning rain storm I’ve seen in years. The only way to keep things from getting totally soaked was to keep moving.
I remembering driving past the rain and weather and it was 4am and we were dead tired and couldn’t stay awake. We parked on the side of the road and I sat in my driver seat and finally fell asleep. Unfortunately, I was so full of coffee, sugar and food that I couldn’t really sleep … my body went offline and my brain kept racing. I started dreaming that I was still driving and in my driving dream, I kept pushing myself to stay awake and not drift off the road. In my dream, I kept dozing off and wandering on the road. In the dream, I kept scaring myself, held on to the steering wheel and bolted awake again … and again … and again. Finally, still in the dream, I fell asleep and as I dozed off I knew I was drifting off the highway at speed and I could see and feel the truck crashing into the bushes, the trees and into the forest …
I bolted wide awake back into reality, gripped the steering wheel like a madman and slammed on the horn and the brakes as hard as I could … I was still sitting quietly on the highway shoulder. My cousin in the other truck walked over and asked if I was OK and asked why I just sounded my horn.
I was so freaked out by the experience that I stayed awake for the rest of the drive.
I used to have dreams that I was driving a car in busy traffic, but for some reason I was sitting in the back seat. Controlling the car from the back was very disorienting. Like my reaction time was lower cause I was further back. And I had no peripheral vision cause I couldn’t really see out the sides of the car. I wasn’t exactly driving a lot at the time, so I’m not sure what my subconscious was trying to tell me.
Good story. I’ve bookmarked that one.
Keep gum or some type of snack with you on long drives. Your brain is really against falling asleep while chewing
holy shit is that true i need that while I’m working on my computer
Livesavers candy got me through several physics lectures in college.
Lately I’ve started taking dove dark chocolates on longer road trips.
The only thing that really helps is some shut eye. Take a 20 minute nap, be a little late then to never arrive.
I’ve done that. Taken several naps in random gas station parking lots rather than drive tired.
For me, stopping, getting out, and getting some coffee wakes me up for 2-3 hours. I also listen to audiobooks as I drive to keep my brain working. A good engaging story is better than a nap for me.
Yeah. That’s why they invented cruise control. Just make sure you don’t miss your exit.
this was me back when I had hour plus commute just one way
