‘Millions’ fell asleep at the wheel last year – we boil a kettle of caffeinated advice
Filed under: Humour According to the latest survey by road safety charity, Brake, one in eight drivers has succumbed to ‘head-nodding’ or so-called microsleep in the past year. That means that over four million people felt drowsy enough to drop off for between two and 30 seconds, often without realising it, while they were at the wheel.Quite how Brake arrived at that precise figure if people don’t realise they’re doing it is beyond us, but the fact that drivers are embarking on journeys while tired is hardly a revelation. The majority of commuters still use a car to get to work in the morning (and then back again after eight hours of toil) so it’s not surprising that one in four of the 1,000 surveyed admitted to being tired before setting off. Brake also appears to be aghast at the news that 86 percent of those asked said they didn’t stop to have a nap when they felt the first signs of drowsiness. Of course they didn’t. People aren’t meandering around the road network at their leisure – they’re fighting tooth and nail to get to work or to home or school or the gym or wherever. The idea of us all pulling up at the side of the road whenever we feel tired is, frankly, ridiculous. If that was indeed ‘sensible best practice’, half of the nation wouldn’t make it to their desks in the morning. Nevertheless, we agree that nodding off on the motorway on a long journey is a pretty unsafe way to go about the business of driving so we’ve had a look at Brake’s advice and offered our own considered opinion. Brake: Get plenty of sleep before a journey, plan your journey to include time for adequate rest and don’t set out if you are already tired. Autoblog UK: Getting plenty of sleep before a long drive is a bit of a no-brainer. Setting off for the Dordogne after your brother’s all-night stag do is patently a bit silly. However scheduling rest stops is the kind of thing American soccer mums do. Ignore. Brake: Take rest breaks at least every two hours for a minimum of 15 minutes. Autoblog UK: Rubbish. If you followed this advice on a road trip from London to Newcastle it would take you 17 days to get there. Even truckers are allowed to go 4.5 hours before stopping for a break. Rule of thumb? Your bladder will tell you when it’s time to pull over. Brake: If you feel tired when you are driving, listen to the warning signs and stop for a break somewhere safe as soon as you can. Sleep ensues faster than you think – trying to fight off sleep by opening the window or listening to the radio puts you at risk of ‘microsleeps’. Autoblog UK: Unless you’ve got the concentration levels of a chess grand master, some tiredness at the wheel is inevitable. The monotony of the motorway is as soporific as a warm cinema. So wind down the window. Stick your head out the sunroof. Turn up the stereo. Slap your face. Bite your tongue. Scream your head off. Wave to physically attractive members of the other sex in other cars. If on a de-restricted stretch of autobahn, see how fast your car will go. Chew gum. Smoke. Learn to smoke. Do anything except resting your eyes for a second. If you can’t, stop. Brake: If you start to feel sleepy while driving, stop for a 15 minute break somewhere safe as soon as possible. If you drink caffeine, drink two cups of coffee or a high-caffeine drink, such as an energy drink, then take a 10-15 minute rest or snooze. By the time you wake up any caffeine will have kicked in and you may feel alert enough to continue your journey. If you still feel tired, or you still have a long way to go, you should stay put and try to find somewhere to get a good night’s sleep. Autoblog UK: Now Brake’s on the money. Caffeine is a great cure for bedtime. But why factor in a 15 minute break? You’d have to be a narcoleptic to grab a quick snooze after shotgunning two cans of Red Bull. Especially when the flavour brings back all those unwanted memories of your brother’s stag do. All joking aside, falling asleep at the wheel can have disastrous consequences, as several high profile accidents have shown. If you’re a fully grown, responsible adult, you’ll know when it’s time to stop without the need for patronising advice. If not, click below to see what happens…
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‘Millions’ fell asleep at the wheel last year – we boil a kettle of caffeinated advice