Not a recommended rest stop method – sleep NEXT to the road instead, or things won’t end well (in Death Valley CA courtesy papalars at Flickr CC)
It’s taken many years of fighting the urge – rolling down the windows, cranking up the music, smacking my face, pouring another cup of coffee or Red Bull – to learn that when you get sleepy while driving, the best cure for it is some….sleep.
That’s right. When you’re sleepy, pull over and sleep.
Through cross-country road trips to mere 3-4 hour jaunts, I’ve dealt with that woozy, dreamy urge. Eyelids like anvils, afraid to put my head back on the headrest for fear I’d doze off, playing mental images of head-on collisions to scare myself awake.
I don’t know why I used to resist the idea of taking a rest. The sleepies usually hit when I didn’t absolutely have to be somewhere at a certain time; they often came on the way home after some big event or conference or meeting. There was hardly ever a situation when I had to be somewhere and couldn’t take the time to stop, but I resisted stopping anyway.
“It’ll go away.”
“I’m fine.”
“How about all the windows down AND Guns N’ Roses turned way up – that’ll work.”
A few years ago, I was on my way back from something, it was just after midnight and I was dying. I exited in some small town off the Interstate where the stoplights had shifted to their overnight flashing, and parked in a lot by the local Department of Public Safety. After texting my husband that I was going to snooze for a bit, I made sure the doors were locked, rolled up a sweater behind my neck, cranked the driver’s seat way back and surrendered to the sleep monster that was banging on my head, demanding entry.
To my surprise, I only slept about 45 minutes, and I awoke feeling 1,000% more refreshed.
I also thought, “Why in the world don’t I do this more often, if I need to?” From then on, about every third or fourth road trip, I’d succumb. Exit, find a reasonably well-lighted and well-trafficked spot, text the husband, lock the doors and do what I needed to do.
It happened this past weekend, when a huge Interstate construction project on the western side of Houston punched an hour or more delay into my night drive. Once I finally crawled out of the eastern side of the city, I could barely function, so I grabbed an hour of sleep in a random Wal-Mart parking lot next to a couple of long-haul trucks and a fine collection of shopping carts. That nap kept me alert during the next hour of bombing through pitch-black flat rice fields and not much else between Houston and Beaumont.
I sometimes arrive to my destinations later than planned, but I arrive alive.
How do you handle it when you feel sleepy on a road trip? Give us a shout down in the comments.
If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS feed or by email – the email signup text link is at the top of the right sidebar above our Facebook Page link. Thanks!
I can’t tell you how many McDonald’s and hotel parking lots I’ve pulled over in for a quick cat nap. My last one was about 30 minutes, but like you, I woke up feeling SO much better. Thanks!
The people who study sleep science say a nap of 20-30 minutes is enough to get you recharged, so it doesn’t make sense to fight it off just to save that little bit of time.
When I was in high school and burning the candles at both ends, I ran off the road in my dad’s car. No injuries, but lots of body work I had to pay for…
Absolutely, Sarah. I’ve never worry about my safety in the parking lots; it’s killing myself or others on the road that is the REAL Booger Man.
Yes, Tim, it really doesn’t take much to get one back to a functional state. Glad no one got hurt with the car!
Let’s try this again. It disappeared on me.
I just came across your post quite by accident, thus my dated response which I’m not sure will even post or reach you. But here hoping.
I’m 62 now & have logged my fair share of driving miles. I cannot come close to counting how many times I should have pulled over due to tiredness. I had it severe. I’m sure I scared quite a few people w my driving, including my former wife & kids, as well as my passengers when I was the main driver in our vanpool between Spring Green & Madison (WI), about an hr drive, when I worked for the state. But something kept pushing me.
My severe sleep problems started wrapping 9th grade, just after we returned from living 2 yrs in the West African nation of Nigeria, which was in the midst of a civil war when we left. My 1st episode was what I later learned was sleep paralysis, where I was awake, & I’d get up, get dressed for school &… &… suddenly realized… I was still in bed! But wait… that was so real. So I’d go thru it again. I really felt I was getting up & dressed &.. I’m still in bed! Mo. Not an out of body experience. This was just an extremely vivid dream. Finally w a twitch here & a rock & roll there I was finally able to get myself up. This continued unabated for yrs… decades. I didn’t know what to say. My mom was a rapid-cycling bipolar. People would think I was nuts, so I didn’t say a word. I also wondered if somehow I had contracted the sleeping sickness in Africa. But we were not in that part of the continent.
So I struggled thru 4 yrs of HS, w 1 teacher telling me in front of the class “Don’t hurt my table!” as my head rose & fell like a bobble-head. In Marine Corps bootcamp 1 of my drill instructors called me his “sleeper”, not a term of endearment for sure. I’d fall asleep standing at attention, marching in formation, during instruction. Not good. It was inlay by the grace & mercy of God I made it thru my guard duty shift in bootcamp w/o getting caught asleep. Not so fortunate when I was stationed at MCAS, Cherry Point, NC, my. Last duty station, where my sleepiness cost me a promotion bc during my 2 mos of guard duty they couldn’t find me 1 night, bc I had crawled into the cockpit of a C-130 to sleep. I had my rounds timed pretty good… but that 1 time. And that was near the end. It was actually 3 mos bc they had me take over another guy’s time bc he was to skip overseas.
Alas, I digress. Fast forward to about 2000. 1st, around 1994 I was prescribed a muscle relaxed called Soma (“a gramme is better than a damn”) aka Carisoprodol, bc I had been diagnosed in 87 w as of that time a little known about yet at the same time very controversial muscular disorder called fibromyositis, better known as fibromyalgia, of which one of the many symptoms was severe back spasms (not to mention fatigue, which unfortunately confused my situation), & this medication was the only one out of all in that category that helped control them. Well lo & behold, another unexpected benefit: when I started taking the Soma, my sleep paralysis episodes went from about 6 per night, which drove my former wife nuts, bc altho I couldn’t move, I could make a grumbling noise, which woke her up, which resulted in her pushing me, which help snap me out of the sleep paralysis episode which, if I did not immediately get up & move, I would fall back asleep & lock right up again.
At this point I must tell you that during the early yrs, the dream state I was in during waking up into that paralyzed state was not too bad, as it usually was feeling like I was getting up… only I wasn’t. I finally figured it out. It would take everything I hardtop snap out of that paralysis & get up right away… and yes, I wish to God I had told my parents. But I didn’t, & methinx the reason will become clearer shortly.
As I got older, starting sometime in the Marines, these increased to night terrors, horrific dreams, always as I was waking up into the paralysis. Sometimes my roomies wd yell at me or shake me to see if I was ok bc I wd be yelling out in my frozen state. Also the hypnagogic hallucinations.
So, now back to 2000 or so (I have no concept of time… might’ve been 2002, the last yr I was with a wife). I don’t remember the circumstances but I was eventually sent for a sleep study. The initial one I remember saying “it didn’t show anything, did it?” bc I didn’t have a sleep paralysis episode.
“Au contraire! It showed that you have fairly severe obstructive sleep apnea, w your O2 sats dropping to 70%, which is just enough for brainstem function, which is what keeps your heart beating & your lungs breathing.”
Oh. Ok. But it still doesn’t explain the sleep paralysis episodes. Then test 2, the MSLT (multiple sleep latency test). Essentially I had to not sleep for 24 hrs before going in. Then the hook you up to all sorts of wires & pads. Then you go to sleep in 2 hr stints. After each 2 hrs they wake you up, get you up, go to the bathroom, etc. I think they kept you up some 10-20mins. Then back in bed. If you fall into REM sleep within 20 mins, that’s a positive. 1 or less such positives is an overall negative. 2 or more is an overall positive.
Unfortunately the computer messed up & therefore no teachings, which was a bummer bc I started having asleep paralysis episode right before they woke me up the last time. However, the tech took excellent notes, & they said I had at least 2 episodes of early onset REM, plus I went to sleep very fast all the times except the 1st bc I was too anxious w all the stuff on me. The teacher said during 1 section, I went into REM sleep before he even git out the door of the room I slept in.
So what did all this show? That I had narcolepsy! I had all the signs & symptoms except, thank God, the cataplexy.
Now just before that (which means the MSLT had to have been done in 2003 bc it came after this other diagnosis) I had been tested elsewhere for another competing disorder which had plagued me… mainly, ADHD. Now that’s not an excuse. I’m still responsible for my actions. But it explained many things. For instance, when I used to do heavy drugs, the 1 drug I hated most was speed. I was only do it if there was nothing else. Why did I hate it? Bc when I took it, only 1 thing happened to me, & that was, I fell asleep! My buddies were like “Jake! How can you go to sleep on this stuff man!?” “I don’t know, but my brain is shutting down & I gotta go to sleep!”
So, I have 2 competing disorders discovered late in my lifeguard almost age 50. On 1 end of the spectrum I have ADHD, which explained my need to be moving all the time. At home it was “stop bouncing your leg at the table, keep your hands still”, etc. Teachers: “doug has it up here” (pointing to the brain) “but not in here.” pointing to the heart. Of course back then they knew nothing about it. It also explained my… “stubbornness” in the form of hyperfocus. It got me thru a lit of things that normal people wd give up on. This was good in many areas, but also a curse in others.
And on the other end of the spectrum is the narcolepsy w the excessive daytime somnolence.
So 1 side is an overactive brain, the other side an overfatiguef brain. Eventually we discovered that the same medication for the ADHD side, Adderall XR (extended release) to try & help slow my brain down a bit, was also used for the other side, narcolepsy. We found just about the right dose, so that I neither flew too close to the sun which would’ve melted my wings, motivation close to the water which would’ve soaked my wingsboth resulting in danger.
All this to say, if you find you’re too often too tired while driving, as well as other areas, despite having had great rest, then you might be looking at something else.
Sorry it took so long to get here. My brain sees pictures & that’s what it takes me to translate it into English, & it doesn’t always get the translation right.
Anyways I just wanted to share my little experience. My short stories always turn unto… not so short stories. But hopefully you can understand it.
Take care & have a blessed day.
Respectfully yours, doug
Thanks, Doug, I’m pretty sure I don’t have a sleep disorder, just normal tiredness on the road, but I do appreciate hearing your story. 🙂