getting used to night time driving

I got my eyes checked. I got bifocals. Thought about getting my prescription in the windshield...

 

Stay awake!

 

85% of my driving is done at night.I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

I have worked nights now for two and a half years, dont know if your driving local or long haul, I work local run mostly county roads. I really like it and winter time slow down take your time if the roads are to bad time to pull off the road for the night. One other thing I had our mechanic put in brighter headlights, which made a huge difference. Alot less traffic at night pending where you are...Most nights just me and animals out there to watch out for.

 

Sleep during the day...so you can be awake during the night!

 

This is often easier to say, than it is to do. However, there are some tricks that help your body get used to a reverse cycle.

Sleep in a dark room. The darker the better. If you can put blackout curtains on the windows, this is ideal. If you need to get a pair of {---my mind, I've lost my mind---} those black eye covers, whateverthehell they are called, they may help.

Keep the room reasonably cool.

Get some type of "white noise." Sometimes a fan on low speed is all you need to help drown out the daytime noises. In my case, just the small noise from my CPAP does the trick. You might even need earplugs, but I never wore them as they were very uncomfortable for me.

Keep early morning (before bedtime) liquid intake at a minimum.

It can be tough to get your body to make the adjustment. And it can be even harder on the wife and kids, if you happen to have such things. They need to know that it is time to be quiet, because "daddy is sleeping."

 

Spot on with this. I worked a local night shift (gas tanker) once, it was harder on the family because my opposite hours screwed them up completely...saw no way of getting onto day shift short of 3-5 years so back to long-haul I went.!

 

Running NYC and CT its better to run at nite. I did 3rd shift for about 14 months and could not sleep more than 6hrs during the day and I did all the things suggested , but I'm not wired for nite driving can do it if I gotta for 2-3 days after that I start to get sleep deprived. Also keep your instrument panel lighting as low as possible cuts down on eye strain. God bless your endeavors.

 

You'll grow to like less traffic and get used to poor winter road maintenance running at night. As far as sleep goes, do what works best for you. I typically start around 8pm and finish around 7-7:30am and try to be in bed around 10 and get up around 6-6:30. Some guy's will stay up later and get up later - that just works for me.

Monday is always the tough one. It's not practical to keep a day sleep schedule on the weekend which makes Monday rough. I generally stay up all day Saturday, get up early on Sunday, get up early on Monday, and get a 4 hour nap before I start Monday night. A few times though I never got that nap and was up for like 30 hours by time I was done Tuesday morning. It will happen but try not to do that..lol..