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jayfurrWe all have our crosses to bear. Some people are unemployed and can't find a job. Some have autistic children that require 24/7 special care. Some have next-door neighbors who like to walk around in their backyards nekkid, juggling lumps of raw hamburger and singing Achy Breaky Heart.
I've got my own: I've somehow managed to develop some sort of weird syndrome where I get sleepy/tired whenever I get on a highway and drive for much more than a half hour, even if I got a good night's sleep the night before and even if I've had a couple cups of coffee. I find that I start doing all the real no-nos -- swerving slightly from side to side, maybe jerking my head back up as I was starting to nod off, slapping my head and shouting "ARGH WHY CAN'T I WAKE UP", etcetera. I wind up taking rest breaks every half hour or so, getting off at an exit and just walking around to try to get myself refreshed for the next stretch. This really sucks, not just for me but also for other drivers on the road that I'm probably imperiling. I find that I definitely cannot keep my highway speed up to what everyone else is driving; I'll find myself going 55 in a 65 zone or 60 in a 75 zone.
I live 200 miles from downtown Boston, but when I have to go to Boston for work I can leave at 2 in the afternoon on a Sunday and find myself pulling into my hotel parking lot five, five and a half hours later. Even allowing for crazy-bad Boston traffic the last few miles of the trip, that's just insane. It should take 3.5 hours, or less if you like to speed, to do that distance. I lose a lot of time taking all those rest breaks and a lot more driving below the speed limit.
That's why I took Amtrak down to Boston this week. It took me from 9:28 AM on Sunday morning until 8 PM on Sunday evening to get from the Waterbury, Vermont train station to the Boston Back Bay commuter rail/Amtrak station. True, there was horrible snowy weather the whole way, but really, that only affected when my train got to New Haven, Connecticut. When I got there, okay, I had a shorter connection to catch my 5:30 train to Boston but I wasn't going to get there before 7:30 no matter what I did.
BUT I DIDN'T HAVE TO DRIVE IT. I know that if I'd driven down I'd have left at 9:30 in the morning, or whatever, had a drive from Hell in all that snow, and probably run off the road into a ditch somewhere around Sutton, New Hampshire, drooling from exhaustion and hardly even aware of my surroundings. Or if I made it all the way, I'd probably still have gotten there around dark. After all, I made the reverse trip last February on a snowy day, leaving Boston at 5 PM and arriving home well after 11.
I don't suffer from narcolepsy at any other time -- just when I'm driving. I'm not out of shape, overweight, suffering from sleep apnea, you name it. I just can't maintain alertness behind the wheel of a car on the highway, and it's really messing my life up. I have absolutely no idea what to do about it, what sort of doctor to talk to, or what, but until I get it figured out, I don't know what to do other than keep on taking the train when I need to get somewhere in New England or flying when I need to go somewhere else.
Advice? Thoughts?
I've got my own: I've somehow managed to develop some sort of weird syndrome where I get sleepy/tired whenever I get on a highway and drive for much more than a half hour, even if I got a good night's sleep the night before and even if I've had a couple cups of coffee. I find that I start doing all the real no-nos -- swerving slightly from side to side, maybe jerking my head back up as I was starting to nod off, slapping my head and shouting "ARGH WHY CAN'T I WAKE UP", etcetera. I wind up taking rest breaks every half hour or so, getting off at an exit and just walking around to try to get myself refreshed for the next stretch. This really sucks, not just for me but also for other drivers on the road that I'm probably imperiling. I find that I definitely cannot keep my highway speed up to what everyone else is driving; I'll find myself going 55 in a 65 zone or 60 in a 75 zone.
I live 200 miles from downtown Boston, but when I have to go to Boston for work I can leave at 2 in the afternoon on a Sunday and find myself pulling into my hotel parking lot five, five and a half hours later. Even allowing for crazy-bad Boston traffic the last few miles of the trip, that's just insane. It should take 3.5 hours, or less if you like to speed, to do that distance. I lose a lot of time taking all those rest breaks and a lot more driving below the speed limit.
That's why I took Amtrak down to Boston this week. It took me from 9:28 AM on Sunday morning until 8 PM on Sunday evening to get from the Waterbury, Vermont train station to the Boston Back Bay commuter rail/Amtrak station. True, there was horrible snowy weather the whole way, but really, that only affected when my train got to New Haven, Connecticut. When I got there, okay, I had a shorter connection to catch my 5:30 train to Boston but I wasn't going to get there before 7:30 no matter what I did.
BUT I DIDN'T HAVE TO DRIVE IT. I know that if I'd driven down I'd have left at 9:30 in the morning, or whatever, had a drive from Hell in all that snow, and probably run off the road into a ditch somewhere around Sutton, New Hampshire, drooling from exhaustion and hardly even aware of my surroundings. Or if I made it all the way, I'd probably still have gotten there around dark. After all, I made the reverse trip last February on a snowy day, leaving Boston at 5 PM and arriving home well after 11.
I don't suffer from narcolepsy at any other time -- just when I'm driving. I'm not out of shape, overweight, suffering from sleep apnea, you name it. I just can't maintain alertness behind the wheel of a car on the highway, and it's really messing my life up. I have absolutely no idea what to do about it, what sort of doctor to talk to, or what, but until I get it figured out, I don't know what to do other than keep on taking the train when I need to get somewhere in New England or flying when I need to go somewhere else.
Advice? Thoughts?
