The best thing I've found for staying awake...

Well, crap they took all the good stuff off the market. Power Naps work well. Nothing replaces sleep. I find occasionally a 5 hour energy drink works well as a midday pickup.

The absolute best is when I shut my tongue in the window.

 

Arguing with my boss that happens to be absent helps.

 

How many freight claims do you have?

I like the little Starbucks Double Shots in the black can. But if you ever have the chance to get to a Starbucks store, get them to make you a home made Doubleshot with 5 shots expresso. I guarantee you'll be up all night!

If that doesn't work, cruise through the local housing projects and get you a crack rock or two. You might not have any freight left, but you will get there!

 

When driving From Ohio to California (in a Chevy Malibu) I Know Completely Different from a Big rig,,
I stayed up for a whole 26 Hours, ( I stoped to get gas and food, but the trick i used was to bring pain (rolling up the winder on the pinky finger is a fav) or to work out (Stop on a side of the road and do oh idk 30 push ups and then 30 squats..) - I'm guessing you can use this 'Half-hour or 15 mins in your log books as 'off duty' ?? (Still not to sure how the whole log book's work..)

Then again Just thinking, you can take a nap if you keep driving until the mileage reaches X amount, and start doing mathematical calculations in my head

After the 26 Hours my Grandfather drove out of needles heading for Riverside while I Crashed in the back seat..

Then again i'm a newbie ... I have no clue what i'm talking about !~

Jake

 

I usually just stab myself in different spots on my leg with a ball point pen really,really hard,but after a while I get tired of that and,just go to bed....or pour hot coffee in my lap.

 

Best thing I have found for staying awake is a proper nights sllep before going to work.. Nothing beats proper rest management..All these wake up energy drinks etc are bad for you and in some cases the crash is so bad that you dont even realise you are about to fall asleep at the wheel... if you are tired stop and have a nap... pretty simple and it costs nothing

 

You OTR folks are girls.

I took my 34. Slept most of it away. Got back to the yard and put my newly washed clothes away, loaded my fridge and put my bed back together. Got comfortable and went back to sleep, best I could, and woke up ready for anything at 1700.

My Qualcomm goes nuts and I have a pick up ..... at 0130. My appointments are 0300, 0530, 0900 and 1130, trailer wash (reefer) and then a back haul appointment at 1300 with 1 hr live load then return the trailer were I found it.

Doing this is easy. Hitting the appointments is do-able.

What's the problem? The two hours between 0400 and 0600. No time for a nap. No time for talking about sleep, I did that.

Between 0400 and sunrise I suffer and I hate the energy drinks. But, they are in the cooler on the floor just-in-case.

Now, what do you do when you did sleep, you cannot nap and you are suffering from your internal sleep clock lying to you ?

 

I agree about the proper rest eating good, but we arent all over weight lool.. I usually stop a few miles from our yard after loading (we run heavy casing/pipe to drill rigs) and ill re tighten all my straps and check every thing again and then I go into the grocery store right there and buy some fresh fruit and some veggies.. a couple of freash buns and some sliced deli meats..Im 55 yrs old in Jan and weigh in at 206lbs and im 6'1" .. I weigh only 15 lbs heavier than when I was in the military 30 yrs ago..

 

Redbull,mountain dew and monster drink milkshake all blended together seem to work well

 

Red Man tobacco and a large MountainDew.
Drink MtnDew, insert Red Man, use bottle for spitter.

Only drawback with that method is that it'll get ya so wired, takes at least half an hour to fall asleep.

OK, nothing beats a good power nap.