Thread by @KevinKulp

You may be driving home cross-country from Indianapolis, returning from Gen Con. You're likely to be exhausted! This seems like a good time to pull out my standard advice to keep you alive. Feel free to share.

For people driving (or gaming) on short sleep:

1/?

1. Most people need 7-9 hours of sleep to be well-rested. When you're getting less than that (as most people do), you're far more likely to suffer from something called "microsleeps." The less sleep you've had, the more likely it is that you'll experience these.

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2. Microsleeps are a wave of sleep that washes over you, for anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. You may not even realize that you've been technically asleep; these can happen while your eyes are open.

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Don't remember the last five minutes of your drive, or your attention is wandering to things that aren't the road? You're suffering from microsleeps.

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3. Microsleeps can happen at any time; they are MUCH more likely when you're sleep deprived. In a recent documentary, they kept someone up for 24 hours and had them drive around a test track for an hour. He remembers drowsing off twice; in actuality, he fell asleep 22 times.

5/?

Not only did he actually fall asleep 22 times, he only remembered 2 of them. This is happening to you, too. If you're sitting at a table, no one cares. If you're behind the wheel of a car, you're screwed.

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4. At these times, your reaction time is awful. If you're on a flat straight empty road, you'll hopefully be okay. If the guy in front of you hits his brakes, though, you'll never be able to react in time. It's incredibly dangerous.

7/? (For realsies)

5. When you feel this starting to happen, pull the car over off the road, get into the passenger seat, and take a ten minute nap. Walmart parking lots are really good places for this, as they never mind.

8/?

6. Cold air, a blasting radio - these provide only momentary (and minuscule) boosts to your alertness. A short "power nap" is the only thing that will raise your alertness in the short term. Ten or fifteen minutes of shuteye will help you stay awake for the next 1-2 hours.

9/?

Caffeine helps too, but isn't a perfect solution. For the greatest effect, take a "coffee nap": drink a cup of coffee & close your eyes for ten minutes. You'll wake up incredibly alert. (If falling asleep during a game, a 5 min break w/ your eyes closed can help, as well.)

10/?

7. Remember, sleepiness comes in waves; you may be fine, then 20 minutes later you're ready to keel over. Sleep-related accidents are much more likely to occur with folks who have been up all night, then who drive farther than 20 minutes.

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The presence of daylight helps a great deal with your alertness, which is why the vast majority of fatigue-related accidents happen between 1am to 6 am, especially right around dawn.

12/?

8. Regarding reaction time and the ability to reason logically - studies have shown that after 22 hours without sleep (assuming a morning wake-up time), your performance is equivalent to someone with a .08 blood alcohol level.

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After 24 hours with no sleep, performance & mental acuity is equivalent to .10 - legally drunk. See, there's a reason you make stupid decisions when tired! If you're sleep-deprived, keep this in mind when thinking about what you're doing, especially if you have to drive.

14/?

9. Short naps (10-15 minutes, 20 minutes max) are great for short-term alertness boosts. Long naps (2-3 hours) are even better; they give you restorative sleep and can keep you going another 6-10 hours. Stay away from 1-hour naps.

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Due to the way your sleep patterns run, a 1-hour nap will often leave you feeling groggy and tired, when a shorter or longer nap will not. Neat, huh?

16/?

10. The amount of alertness you gain after 5 hours of sleep is significantly higher than the amount you gain after 4 hours. If you have a choice, you'll be a lot happier with that extra hour.

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11. More than 3 cups of coffee (or doses of caffeine) doesn't make you any more alert; it just makes you more anxious, irritable and prone to stress. Keep your coffee intake spaced out, don't overdue it, and remember that caffeine stays really active in your body for...

18/?

...for roughly four hours after drinking it. If you try to sleep when caffeinated, your sleep quality will stink; for that reason, try to time your caffeine intake so that you stop drinking caffeine 3-4 hours before your anticipated bedtime.

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There a ton more information that may help, but this is a decent fast primer. Be aware of your drowsiness when driving, and watch out for that mental sluggishness - recognizing it in time may be the best thing you do while driving home.

Holler with questions!

20/20

And because I'm shameless, let's close this thread with a cute photo of my dog. She sleeps all the time, right? It's *totally* related.

Thanks for reading this. I hope it helps.