The all-nighter is home to me, I have at least two per fortnight every time during university terms. So when I was watching Mythbusters on a Monday night (I don't watch Mythbusters, but it's my brother's favourite TV show and he has the TV on all the time it's been on) they decided to test myth 'is it worse to drive tired then to drive tipsy?'. And finally, they put a myth up that I could relate to.
I've driven tired at least twice this year already, with a minimum of three hours sleep, which I know is very dangerous. As much as I want to go take the bus when I'm tired, the car is just too convenient. Being able to hitch everything (which is sometimes a lot; my laptop, my models, my A1 sized plots, with my obligatory things I need to have with me like my mobile, my iPod and my flask full of stimulants) and also cutting half the time it takes to get to uni is sometimes to me worth the price of petrol to get there. I know a lot of people in uni do this as well.
With normal driving during the day time I can still stay awake (but not completely alert) on not much sleep. I find I can concentrate all right if I'm driving through places with a 100km/h limit or in the city. I usually turn up my music very loud (because usually in this case when I drive I am all by myself which allows me to listen to my own shitty music) and that usually keeps me up. It's only when I drive below a certain limit, usually around suburban areas, and if I'm driving without music, that's when I run into trouble, because driving patterns becomes a little tedious, there's not much traffic so you don't have to think and automatically turn this way and that, and it tends to make you more bored and tired. If you had less than 5 hours of sleep, you will find that you will fall asleep behind the wheel very soon.
As a evil little confession, to stay awake behind the wheel and to combat my fatigue I speed a lot, often 10 km/h or so above the speed limit, because the thrill of speeding keeps me awake. It seems counter-intuitive to do so, because by speeding you run a higher risk from getting into accidents. Mix that with no sleep at all, and your risk of getting into an accident probably would fly off the roof.
Back to the Mythbusters episode, which I will now promptly spoil for you, they found that it was worse driving tired then tipsy, which I found a bit surprising. Even though strictly speaking Mythbusters are not a source of true solid scientific evidence or advice, at least there is now evidence of the case. I've actually heard someone confess in first year that they found that they drove worse tired then when they drove back from a party drunk. Which says an awful lot about my driving; I will not think of drinking alcohol and then driving (in fact I don't drink alcohol at all, so that's out of the question). But I'm doing something potentially worse; driving while tired, and speeding while tired.
So conclusion? Not much sleep for Rachel makes her a complete devil behind the wheel. Obviously I've got to know my limit now and stick to it, or find out the hard way. Finding out the hard way will be an absolutely nasty shock to say at the least. I should make it a rule in my life never to drive without more than seven hours of sleep regardless of how much stuff I need to hitch on the bus while I wait 30 minutes for it to come. I think that sounds better then possibly losing your life in a car accident because you were too tired.
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