7 tricks to avoid falling asleep at the wheel

The act of driving is characterized by making us fall into an illusion: we believe we are much more powerful than we are, and we can even forget that at these speeds, we are very vulnerable.

Somehow, spending time watching the landscape go by quickly around us leads us to assume that this is normal, that we are made to move that way. But that is not quite so.

In fact, in most cases in which we drive a car, falling asleep for two seconds is enough to have a traffic accident. Furthermore, it is estimated that around 25% of traffic accidents in Spain are related to sleep or fatigue. It is the vehicle that is made to move at those speeds; we must adjust to these mechanics as best we can, assuming much greater risks than we usually face on foot.

Therefore, in this article we will review the most useful tricks to avoid falling asleep while driving, so that the chances of having an accident decrease.

• Related article: "The 7 main sleep disorders"

Tips and strategies to avoid falling asleep while driving

It should be noted that the fact of falling asleep at the wheel is in itself, without leading to fatalities, considered serious negligence from a legal point of view, and it is the responsibility of the driver to be aware of his condition and not expose himself and others to such dangers.

That is why here we are not talking about how to manage a risk that affects us individually, but one that it can affect many other people inside and outside our vehicle, and that even has implications social.

Taking this into account, it is worth knowing some key ideas to avoid falling asleep at the wheel and avoid accidents; Below you can find several of the most effective ones.

1. Set yourself a clear sleep schedule

This is by far the most effective trick to avoid falling asleep at the wheel: do what you need to get the necessary hours of undisturbed sleep, in a quiet place in the dark. For it, it is crucial that you control your schedule well and that you establish protocols so as not to expose yourself to the temptation of staying up late.

In this sense, something very simple and effective is to print your schedule, leave it in a place in the house that you usually have in sight, and include in the days of the week a start and end time for preparations before going to bed: cleaning the dishes, brushing your teeth, turning off the lights, etc. In this way, the circumstances will not arise that time flies by and you realize that the time to go to sleep has already passed, leading you to ignore the schedule as ineffective.

• You may be interested in: "Time management: 13 tips to take advantage of the hours of the day"

2. Stay alert for sleep signs

It's very important carry out a "monitoring" about your state of consciousness to prevent accidents. To do this, it is good to take into account criteria as objective as possible, so that you are very clear if the dream can play a trick on you.

The main symptoms of drowsiness are the following (although they do not have to be present all at once):

• Itchy or stinging eyes
• Headache
• General tiredness
• Tendency to yawn multiple times in a row

On the other hand, there are other red flags that indicate an urgent problem and the need to stop as soon as possible:

• You are surprised to notice that you have lowered the lids of your eyes until half of your field of vision is blocked.
• When speaking, you have a hard time vocalizing.
• You notice that on more than one occasion you have been about to invade the hard shoulder or the lane on your left with the whole wheel without wanting to.
• Along with the dream you experience "pinpricks" that seem to come from inside your head.

Take this into account to know when you have to stop trusting everything to the rest of the tricks and it is time to go to sleep as soon as possible, in an emergency stop.

3. Make strategic stops

These stops of about 10 or 20 minutes are only to rest your muscles and your mind so that fatigue does not feed your drowsiness. It is recommended to do them at least every two hours, even if you think you are not sleepy, and especially if you travel at night.

You have to differentiate these stops from those you make to sleep in cases of emergency or when your schedule includes this measure. In such cases, you are interested in dedicating not a few minutes to sleep, but the hours necessary to stop being sleepy.

If you only sleep a quarter of an hour or a little more, you will most likely continue in that state of excessive drowsiness or even accentuate the problem, depending on the phase of sleep you are in when you wake up. In any case, it is much better to stop and sleep than not in a sleep state that makes driving difficult.

4. Be aware of the most dangerous hours

Statistically, it is considered that The times when there is a greater risk of falling asleep while driving are between 3 and 5 a.m. and between 2 and 4 p.m. It is believed that this has to do, on the one hand, with the monotony and the lack of stimuli associated with the fact to travel at night, and in the case of the afternoon time slot, with the drowsiness favored by the digestion.

Keeping this risk factor in mind is important to avoid falling asleep at the wheel, but this should not serve as an excuse to lower your guard during the rest of the day.

5. Make sure to maintain the correct temperature in the vehicle

Phenomena such as being exposed to high temperatures can favor us to experience sleep: our body asks us to rest to lower body temperature. Therefore, try to make good use of the air conditioning or the car windows (although lowering them does not have Why lower the temperature inside the vehicle, it will allow you to better dissipate the heat from your Body).

6. Sings

Singing is a way to get involved in a task that requires coordination but does not involve too much distraction, since this task makes use of parts of the brain linked to movements that you already have very internalized. Of course, you better know the songs.

7. Have a conversation with the copilot

If you go with a co-pilot, take advantage of it so that through the conversation it helps you focus on the here and now. In addition, it will help you to know if the moment comes when the degree of drowsiness is so high that you have to go to plan B and make an emergency stop to sleep.