Late Nights...Energy question

Crossing the NV desert at night you might get lucky.....either E.T. or some other wildlife.....

 

To each theire own i guess just do whats most comfortable for you.

 

Don't get me wrong.....I'm not really a night person...but you gotta do whatever it takes sometimes to get 'er done...

 

That's what i do myself, and it work's well for me. Ive drove two times being very tired before i started to take a power nap when needed. And them two times i coulda killed myself or someone else, the seconded time i noded off an felt myself crossin on over,WOW i thought never again it happened so quick 2 My advice would be a power nap 20 to 30 will due

 

Some guys would rather be on night shift than day. It's hard on the body thou. My compamy pays the night shift a dollar more per hour.

When I got tired on long runs I'd just stop and get out for awhile. Stretch your limbs and while you're there check the truck.

BUT if nothing works my "stay awake system" does.

1.Get a fishing trible hook
2. Get any hat
3.Get about 4 feet of 20lb fishing line.

Tie the line to the fishing hook, put on your hat. Drop the hook and line down the back of your back then stop when the hook is sitting right under your scrotum sack. Look straight ahead and tie the othe end of fishing line to back of hat. Of course this can be made up before you use it. Once it's on then you have the stay awake system.


Don't believe me just take a nod.

 

I had no problem driving from midnight til morning when I was OTR. What screwed me up was trying to run graveyard shift for a local outfit. I didn't have the truck to sleep in, and just couldn't sleep in my own bed during the daytime no matter what I did.

 

Ive always slept during the day and run when the Solar Powered Drivers have hit the bunk.
Less traffic,easier scale crossing,less police,no need to use loops around large metro area's.
Fire up the amps and talk waaaaaaaaaay down the street with someone
30-40 miles in front or behind you.
Plenty of good times rolling at night.

Preferred Energy drink: FOLGERS 100% Colombian

 

This can present a real challenge for folks. Particularly if there are children in the house. I worked shift work for many years, and my kids were pretty young at the time. One pre-school and one elementary school. You just get to sleep when you hear - thump thump thump thump SLAM! Or MOMMIE! Then of course you hear the wife gently correcting the kids, "HEY QUITE DOWN, DAD'S TRYING TO SLEEP!"

There are some things you can do to mitigate the problems though. First and foremost, get that bedroom DARK! Black out curtains, or whatever you have to do. (I could never wear the eye covers.) Make sure you have good ventilation. If it's summer and you are using air conditioning, set the control to "circulation" to keep the fan running all the time. Use "white noise." There are machines out there designed just for this purpose. They are well worth the money!

As for night driving, when I first got into trucking, I was running reefers for a regional outfit. West coast to Denver, to Nebraska or Kansas & back to the coast. The vast majority of the driving was at night. It took about two weeks of adjusting to get used to it. On top of that, I was having problems in trying to sleep in the sleeper. I just muddled through it, thank GOD I didn't kill myself or someone else, during this time.

When I drove for Knight, they highly encouraged us to not drive between midnight and five in the morning. They did not prohibit it, they just discouraged it.

 

Most of the time, no one was home during the day. Hubby was at work, the youngest was with the sitter, and the other 2 were at school. I did all sorts of things to try and sleep, including tylenol PM a few times . . . nothing worked.

Sleeping in the truck during the daytime was no problem, even if I wasn't idling.

I gave up the graveyard thing, and they put me in dispatch. I did get to do some driving still though.

 

Good reading here, especially the advice about no substitute for rest. I just mentioned in another thread, the advantages of a fairly new drug called "Provigil" commonly known as the "alert pill". Non addicting, doesn't upset my stomach, not a speed, for me, it works. It might be beneficial for you to check with your physician about this.