Fateeg

[jayfurr]

We 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?

Comments

[chotii.livejournal.com]

I don't have any suggestions, but I have this same problem when I read books out loud to the kids. Bizarro, eh? Suddenly my eyes get so heavy I can't keep them open, and I want to keel over right wherever I am, and sleep. Which at least isn't behind the wheel of a car.

I suppose you've tried driving with the windows down, blasting music...?

Are you absolutely, utterly sure the exhaust system in your car is not venting Carbon Monoxide into the interior of the car? That'd made you sleepy, all right. Does it happen in other cars, or just the one?

[marith.livejournal.com]

Hm! I would not have thought of an exhaust leak, but that would certainly do it. Switching cars would be a good test.

If it's not that and it's purely a psychological thing, maybe your brain is trying to tell you it doesn't want to lead this travel-heavy lifestyle anymore. Which would be darned inconvenient.

(I used to have similar problems with getting sleepy in class. Any class, any classroom, even if I was well-rested and interested in the material and knew the instructor was watching me so I'd darned well pay attention. It was so annoying and I never found out why.)

[chotii.livejournal.com]

http://askville.amazon.com/recent-experience-Carbon-Monoxide-Poisoning-entering-Cab-1998-Ford-Ranger/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=4506022

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it's happening in ANY car -- and I know that for sure, because I drive a LOT of rental cars.

[chotii.livejournal.com]

I am more convinced this could be Carbon Monoxide. Has this "developed" only since the weather turned cold and you have the car buttoned up tight against the outdoor chill? If I were you, I'd go out and pick up a battery-operated CO monitor that will record ANY CO in your environment, and take it in the car with you. And/or borrow somebody else's car and see if the same thing happens when you drive that car, vs your own car.

There are a lot more stories like yours. Google or Bing: sleepy while driving exhaust leak

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

No, it happens in any weather, and in any car. :(

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

When I have to drive to Boston I always rent a car and drive down; I don't want to put the miles on my own car (and besides, our 'spare' car is really a piece of junk, suitable only to drive to and leave at the airport), and EVERY TIME I get the road narcolepsy. Unless EVERY CAR I drive has a carbon monoxide problem, it's not carbon monoxide. And it's not just Boston, either. I drove from Denver to Fort Collins to meet a friend last year and I couldn't have been on the road a half hour before I started wondering if I should pull over and/or turn around. It was just crazy.

[(Anonymous)]

I chew gum, eat, and drink soft drinks while driving long distances.

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that can help a bit, but on the other hand, I really don't need the calories. I tend to drink a LOT of Pepsi Max and stuff like that on long drives, but sometimes I wonder if it does more harm than good. Certainly doesn't seem to make the fatigue go away for any meaningful length of time.

[lehser.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing a fair number of articles lately in places like the Science Times indicating that recent studies show that caffeine doesn't actually help once you're used to it. You *think* it does, but mostly it just helps you stay at your baseline alertness level--without it, you'd be more impaired, but it's not pushing you above anymore. FWIW.

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think at times I've gotten to that point. I've had some training assignments in wintry northern cities where I got to work before sunup and left after sundown and trained all day in a windowless room -- and as a consequence, drank so much coffee that I was absolutely beyond the point where it helped. I had to cut significantly back for a couple of weeks and *then* a single cup at the start of the afternoon would reanimate me.

[chotii.livejournal.com]

Well, then I'm out of ideas. A woman I follow on Twitter, @omnomnomy, says that in her case it's the motion of the car, any car. Puts her right to sleep. She didn't have any ideas for you beyond that. I'm sorry. :(

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Hey, I appreciate the suggestions and the fact that folks actually replied. :)

I'm thinking maybe I *should* try to find the time to get in for an appointment with a sleep specialist.

[lehser.livejournal.com]

Have you talked to *any* doctor about it? Your primary care doc might have some thoughts on what kind of specialist to talk to, though sleep specialist makes sense off hand.

Taking it to the pros sounds like a decent step at this point.

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

I asked the GE HealthCoach line for a pointer to an in-network sleep specialist and they said they'd get right on it. That was Thursday. No word yet.

[thorfinn]

Play karaoke music and sing along. Or classical choral music, or folk music, or whatever else you might be motivated to sing along to.

If you're capable of continuous singing, you're breathing regularly and well. :-)

I find it keeps me a *lot* more awake in a car than just about anything else.

[jayfurr.livejournal.com]

Music hasn't been helping reliably. Once in a while it does, but typically only if it triggers a *serious* emotional response. It's hard to predict when that's going to happen.

[thorfinn]

Actually singing along (continuously), or just listening?

The latter, I don't expect to make much difference.