how to keep awake on long drives?

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Have an enlarged prostate. You'll feel the urge to drain the bladder about every 2 hours. Stretch the legs, too, while you're at it.
Eat crunchy snacks.
Vary your cruising speed. Just a 3 mph change makes enough of a difference to "change the tempo" of your drive.
Do stretching exercises while behind the wheel. My shoulders and legs get stiff after a while, and it helps to move.
Listen to talk radio. Listen to music. I find that music with a heavy beat wears me out, so classical or jazz is good. I have a large variety of songs of different genres saved on my smart phone, and run them on shuffle play, so I'm surprised at whatever song comes up next.
I'm basically programmed so that if I'm behind the wheel, my eyes are wide open. But once I notice that my brain slows down, and it takes me longer to make decisions about changes in traffic patterns, I know it's time to stop.

Commercial drivers are limited to 70 hours driving over 8 days before being required to take a 34-hour reset. This is 8.75 hours per day, on the average, but DOT regs allow a maximum of 11 hours driving per day. I can typically do 550 miles per day before my brain gives out, less if I have had to go through large metro areas or drive in lousy weather, more if the traffic is light and weather is good. I have done a few 4000 mile weeks, and it wears me down. I need 2-3 days at home to rest up before cranking up again.
 
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Age 72. Never fell asleep while driving. Hammered others for doing so.

Then it happened. Several days of driving on the last leg going home....I dozed..wife screamed. Somehow I instantly woke and got the vehicle under control in the second land. I have great reactions and it saved me. Out forester was very new and it handled extremely well.

It will never happen again. So for me its the recall of that terrible event. Interesting..I keep somewhat in touch. In an identical scenario..visiting one of their children many miles away. Her husband was not quite so lucky. Husband rolled the car and she was in a neck brace for many weeks and is still not right.

Unfortunately you may need to have an event like this (hopefully not)..you will be cured forever. Oh yea..the answer is stop more frequently and just walk around the car..and use caffeine. But you can't do this day after day (caffeine)
 
Getting enough sleep helps tremendously. If I have a long drive coming up I make sure to get 8hrs of sleep days leading upto the drive.
 
Originally Posted by thescreensavers
Getting enough sleep helps tremendously. If I have a long drive coming up I make sure to get 8hrs of sleep days leading upto the drive.


Yep. + 1000000 %

Caffeine only helps so much.
 
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To keep myself awake, I remember the time I fell asleep behind the wheel coming home from a family camping trip and smashed into a parked car. I was about 3 blocks from my home after 3-4 hours driving and I just let my guard down as soon as I pulled off the highway for the "home stretch".

Thankfully I was the only person injured in the accident with a broken sternum. My then toddler and infant had no injuries whatsoever and my wife only had a kink in her neck that quickly went away.

The shame of the danger I put my family in and ensuing financial strain it put on us remind me of the consequences of not taking drowsy driving seriously.
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It takes a lot of will power. Yet once it is taking more energy and effort to stay awake then to drive. It's past time to pull over.
 
I dunno how people do it! So many I know drive non-stop (or maybe claim to) for something like Buffalo NY to FL. My break point is about 14hrs max. Have to stop and sleep at that point.
 
Originally Posted by JTK
I dunno how people do it! So many I know drive non-stop (or maybe claim to) for something like Buffalo NY to FL. My break point is about 14hrs max. Have to stop and sleep at that point.


I was thoroughly exhaust when I got to Florida and slept for 6 hours (a lot for me) after having been up 24 hours.
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Originally Posted by JTK
I dunno how people do it! So many I know drive non-stop (or maybe claim to) for something like Buffalo NY to FL. My break point is about 14hrs max. Have to stop and sleep at that point.


A couple of years ago we took the kids to Florida and I had figured I would drive two 12 hour days but traffic and rest stops took longer than I thought so it ended up being almost two 18 hour drives instead. I don't have things with caffeine on a regular basis, so when I do need it, I find that it works very well for me. So on a road trip I will bring along an energy shot, Alert caffeine gum, or a diet Mountain Dew. If in Canada, I'll stop at Tim Hortons for an iced capp (a small one has 90mg of caffeine) I don't like the taste of coffee so I need to get my caffeine in other ways. If I have too much caffeine too many days in a row I find it is less effective for me and then I need to reset my body by not having caffeine for a week or two (and then it becomes effective again)

Every year my wife and I fly from Niagara Falls NY to Fort Lauderdale on the red eye flight, so when we arrive at 5:30 am, even though we usually sleep on the plane (and in the airport before boarding), we are pretty tired! So once we pick up the rental car we'll usually start driving along Alligator Alley until we find a nice rest stop with some shady trees and then we'll recline the seats back in the car and grab a 30-45 min nap. It works wonders!
 
Sunflower seeds, drinking plenty of water, regular stretch breaks, but none of it will work without a previous good nights sleep.

If I am tired to the point of even getting close to dozing, another can take over or I stop for a break. The life of all those I travel with and others on the road aren't worth the risk.
 
Just got back from a road trip ( 10 day road trip) and as others have said: music, caffeine, keep cool, stretch stops/restroom breaks, and rest ahead of time. Plan ahead for your stops, too. Its better to spend the money on an overnight rest than get wrapped around a tree because you dozed off for two seconds.
 
Sleep sleep sleep. Nothing beats sleep.

A good sleep to start if there's time to spare and the normal morning routine consisting of brushing teeth and pooping usually is enough to start my day and get me energized. At night I usually go to sleep when my reaction time is delayed - at that point it's way to dangerous for me and anybody else around me. I rather go to sleep now for 2 hours and wake up 2 hours early to continue driving versus driving now for another 2 hours and very realistically crash. Stopping at a gas station or rest stop only delays the inevitable need to sleep.

Food and cigarettes helps a little bit too, for like 15 minutes. Porn also helps keep the blood flowing. If I'm on a time crunch, sleeping 30 minutes to an hour usually helps. A friend of mine used to be a 3rd shift car hauler so we'd call each other and talk.

I take 2000+ mile roadtrips often (at least once a month) and twice a year I take 5000+ mile road trips so I've learned my limits through testing. Almost plowed head-first into a construction concrete barrier on the way home at night at 75mph, That was my wake-up call to stop trying to be billy-[censored]. I think my record in one go was 23 hours straight and 3300 miles with 3 hours of sleep. I was hallucinating so bad I though a row of trees in the median was a train.
 
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Originally Posted by StevieC
Originally Posted by Pew
Porn also helps keep the blood flowing.


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while you are driving?


Was experimenting for a friend
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