We all know you need sleep to feel refreshed and be alert for driving, which is why pilots and drivers of commercial vehicles have regulated hours of sleep or driving. But how do you sleep well, and can you make up for lost midweek sleep at the weekend?
On holiday at a hotel in a European city centre with dreadful traffic noise we thought we would never sleep.
We lay down and groaned. Then we woke up - it was already next morning!
How had we slept despite the noise? We'd been busy all day, from dawn packing up and catching a ferry from England to France, then driving cross-country. All day using up physical and mental energy.
If you cannot sleep - why?
Exhausted all the time?: Process of elimination.
Try: new diet eg less sugar; more oxygen - open window and get a thicker duvet; check medical condition - ask doctor to give you a complete checkup or at least test your thyroxine ; self analysis - exhausted what time of day, midweek or all week, morning or evening, speaking to whom makes you feel better or worse?
On another occasion I was at a hotel in Portugal, lovely hotel but a bedroom on a busy main road. After a night's poor sleep, I complained to the manager.
He smiled and said, 'I understand. Many people say that the first night. Unfortunately the hotel is full - but, if you have an ongoing problem, you can move room tomorrow - however, most people sleep well the second day once they are used to it.'
I didn't believe him, but he was right. Having missed one night's good sleep, I was so tired, and so used to the noise, that on night two I slept through quite happily.
The latest study suggests that one night's good sleep at the weekend is not enough. You feel better but are not completely alert - and may be doing your body long-term damage.
I can testify to the lack of alertness. I learned the hard way, from a car accident. I missed a night's sleep trying to finish a chapter of a book for a deadline. I had a night's catch up sleep, but still felt very tired. I drove along the Hendon Way, NW London. I was turning right at the lights. The car ahead turned right. I was second. I followed. I saw a car approaching fast. My reactions were slow. I thought, he's going too fast - brake. I braked but came to rest in his path. Next thought, accelerate. I accelerate and thought, phew, that was close. His car hit the back corner of my car. My car spun around. I came to rest, having hit my ribs on the steering column in the centre of the car. My evening dinner date was cancelled anyway. My car was a write-off. I don't know what happened to the other car but luckily the other driver was ok. Lucky for them and me they were - I could have killed somebody else. It was a classic and common accident of a car turning right at the lights and being hit by oncoming traffic. That's why you should always go slowly through the lights in case another driver creates an obstruction. You could argue that I went too slowly but it wasn't the car speed which was too slow it was my reactions were too slow.
Two morals to this story:
1 Don't leave things to the last moment, the last night - finish important tasks the week before.
2 Never drive if you are overtired - nothing is more important than your safety. If you are tired or drunk, just say you feel too ill to drive safely. Get a train or taxi, ask somebody else to drive or stay home.
Back to the theme - sleep - learn to organise life so you do not need to stay up late to finish work or revise for exams. Get two good night's sleep before driving on any major road.
