Falling Asleep While Driving

[RoguePhotonic]

I've been pretty tired while going to or from some adventure but never came close to falling asleep. I did however coming back from Mt. Tom decide to stop in the middle of the desert and sleep in the back of my truck all night instead of continuing to grind on home.

[oleander]

I don't have a problem driving on little sleep up to the Sierra.

But I have a TERRIBLE problem driving back, after the sun goes down. I honestly feel I cannot see very well with all the headlights. It has made me wonder if there is something about being out in the woods that affects our eyes, making them disused to the bright headlights and unable to process them or to see around them. Feels very unsafe.

Add to that the facts that (a) I've been going to bed early so I'm getting sleepy early; and (b) I've probably gotten a good bit of exercise earlier that day - and you have a recipe for either falling asleep at the wheel or missing something with your eyes when the headlights mess with you.

It's so bad that I will often plan around getting home before dark, or not too long after. Or, if I have a driving partner, I might ask him/her in advance to take over once it gets dark, if that person is not as affected as me.

- Elizabeth

[rlown]

But I have a TERRIBLE problem driving back, after the sun goes down. I honestly feel I cannot see very well with all the headlights. It has made me wonder if there is something about being out in the woods that affects our eyes, making them disused to the bright headlights and unable to process them or to see around them. Feels very unsafe.

Given I don't know your age, but after 50, your vision will be impacted just on age alone. It's not about being in the woods. Eyes can't focus very well after a point in time. I used to love night driving. Not anymore.

[LMBSGV]

A few years ago, I began to have problems with the glare from headlights when driving at night, especially on two-lane highways with oncoming traffic such as 120. At my next eye exam, I told my optometrist and she said get the anti-glare coating for my glasses. Since then, the problem has largely gone away. So if you wear glasses when driving, one might want to pay the extra for the anti-glare addition. I’ve found the coating also helps when I'm hiking in terms of sun glare.

[rlown]

The coatings do work. to a point.

[Jimr]

I've gone through two pair of transition lenses. If the anti-glare are different from transition lenses, then it may be o.k., but what I have experienced (perhaps others have experienced this as well) is they work wonderfully, but hiking in the high UV of the high country damages the coating and they begin to look like a bad window tinting job. They get crackly. That's the only way I can explain it. Like wrinkled cellophane over the lens. The glasses become unusable. Mine would last two seasons, then they'd get so bad that I could not use them at all. I just bought new lenses (third pair) without any sort of photo sensitivity. I'm tired of paying for lenses when my eyes have not changed in 15 years. I just use polarized clip-ons.

I think what Oleander is saying is she does not normally have night driving issues, but has a terrible, wait a minute, TERRIBLE issue driving home from a backpacking trip in the dark. If it only happens under certain conditions, you gotta wonder what the relationship may be. With the damage to my lenses, I didn't put it together until this last season that it was related to high country hiking.

[Cross Country]

In this aspect, the vast majority of the people are a great deal luckier than I. I have dozed while driving hundreds of times, maybe a thousand. For this reason I don't drink sodas or coffee with caffeine. I only doze off for one second and when that happens I stop and buy a caffeine drink. The drinking of it keeps me wide awake and after I finish, the caffeine kicks in. Sometimes I have to drink more than one.

[Ska-T]

If you are an insomniac like me who doesn't normally consume caffeinated drinks, then falling asleep at the wheel is rarely a problem.

That said, driving back in the heat after consuming a huge post-hike meal is a risk factor. Worse for me, being a procrastinator, is the trip up typically having had little sleep. While backpacking I go to bed 4 hrs earlier than usual, thus I am well rested for the drive back.

[SSSdave]

Many times over decades, have started to fall asleep (dreaming) for a moment before recovering with a head shake. Never enough that I began to veer off a road but is very dangerous and I know that. Far more have gotten eye weary to the point I was fighting it. Usually go through a sequence of prevention like slap my face, eat something like peanuts, chew gum, put on some loud rock music, because sometimes that is enough to break out of it. Other times especially when I've had a long strenuous day, I know that is not going to work because my eyes are simply too weary so I find a place to pull over, close my eyes and will sleep 10 to 20 minutes then wake up and am good for the rest of the trip. The reason that works is it is not that my body is so tired that I need to sleep but rather that just my eyes are tired.

I cannot have any drinks that contain caffeine but chocolate contains a similar though less potent chemical, theobromine, that is a mild enough stimulant that I can eat it once a week. So may stop at a convenience store en-route home buying a chocolate bar or chocolate milk to help keep awake. However if my eyes are truly tired like after a long hike out on a trail, that won't help much and instead will pull over per above.

This same thing happens to me all the time while reading at home and note I've been reading a lot of technical materials all my life, really boring stuff haha. I'll be trying to read and just nod off while sitting up on a couch and start to tip over which keeps waking me up each time. After a few times I know its time to put a book down and turn off the lights.

You may have read that when people dream at night they have rapid eye movement aka REM sleep and that most people dream so briefly a few times a night. I am very unusual in that I seem to be dreaming 100% of the time I sleep even if it is just momentary and do so all night long. Every time I wake up it is while dreaming and this last couple weeks have disappointedly woken up a few time just when things were getting really exciting with some gal. Oh well ): A dream researcher once related there are a few other people with the same behavior. Thus when driving a car and momentarily nodding off, I also start dreaming momentarily. Same thing used to happen decades ago in high school study class while reading whatever books.

David

[sparky]

Ive been close too many times to count, but I have never fallen asleep driving.

Dave, have you ever experimented with lucid dreaming or astral projection?