Falling asleep at the wheel is a real danger, and it happens more often than you’d like to think. Teach your drivers proper methods for staying awake and alert, and make sure to follow them yourself the next time you’re on the road.Your mind is drifting, and so is your car. Help keep your truck company accident-free. Late-night driving is sometimes a necessity, but that is no excuse to forget safety. Always maintain a safe distance from the road and make sure your truck is visible to drivers. If you can do this at a rest stop, great, but you can pull over anywhere with a significant shoulder and start doing jumping jacks. Exercise: Find a safe place to pull over, put on your hazard lights, get out of the truck, and start doing some jumping jacks.The walk will get your blood pumping and reinvigorate you. Walk around: At the next exit, find a gas station, rest stop, or even a parking lot and take a quick walk around. ![]() If you are nowhere near a rest stop, find a safe place to pull over on the side of the road and take a nap. Cat nap: Pull over at a rest stop or a gas station, turn off the lights and radio, and take a nap.Sometimes the best choice is to take a short break. It is important to realize when you are drowsy enough to be a danger to yourself and others. Stay away from high-sugar foods well-you’ll get more energy at first, but what goes up must go down. Avoid heavy foods that will make you sleepy. Eat these snacks one at a time so your arm has to keep moving. Eat: Eat something you can easily pop in your mouth like chips or popcorn.But simply swaying in your seat can help keep you more awake. Don’t go crazy-safety is important, and you shouldn’t allow yourself to get distracted. Dance: Put on a favorite playlist and dance in your seat.While it can be convenient, the physical action of applying pressure to the gas and brake pedals can help keep you awake. Stop cruising: Turn off cruise control.Remember to consider safety in all of your actions. Moving around will help you stay more alert and prevent you from falling asleep. Consider turning on the light if you start to feel particularly drowsy. Turn on the lights: Part of the reason it is so easy to fall asleep while driving at night is because it is dark.Make sure it is cold enough to keep you awake and alert, but warm enough to still think and function properly. Roll down your windows for a while or turn on the air conditioning. Cool down: It is harder to fall asleep when you are cold.Of course, make sure you can still use your mirrors and drive safely. The change will help to revitalize you and keep you from getting too comfortable. As soon as you get used to the position and it starts to feel natural, adjust it again. Reposition your seat: Put your seat in a new position.Create an ideal driving environment in your truck. Consider creating a playlist of songs specifically designed to keep you awake on some of the longer stretches of road.Įverything from the position of the seat to the temperature in the car can affect your drive. Stock your truck: Make sure to pack some easy to grab snacks.If you have to drive overnight, start sleeping during the day and staying up at night for 3-5 days beforehand. ![]() Condition your body: Adjust to your driving schedule before the trip if at all possible.Some drivers think that one solid night of sleep will make up for a week of restless nights, which is simply not true. Consistent, significant sleep: Make sure to get at least 7 hours of sleep consistently for 3-5 days before the trip.You can prevent drowsy driving through proper preparation. ![]() It’s easier to prevent yourself from getting drowsy than it is to wake yourself up. The following suggestions can help keep you and your drivers safe, alert, and responsible.Īn ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In order to protect everyone on the road, you and your drivers need to know proper methods for staying awake during long, overnight drives. Overnight driving is not going to go away. According to a Gallup estimate, in the last month, 7.5 million drivers nodded off while driving.īut America runs on the wheels of semi-trucks. Around 37% of drivers report falling asleep or nodding off while driving. Drowsy driving accounts for more than 100,000 crashes a year. Your fight against falling sleep seems like a hopeless battle.ĭriving fatigue is a real issue with real consequences. Slowly your eyelids become heavier and heavier. It’s late, and you’ve been driving for hours. After a while, the empty landscape racing on either side of you becomes hypnotic. There’s nothing to see but endless miles of road. Imagine a long, empty stretch of highway without a city in sight.
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