How do you guys stay awake?

Not at that company. They didn't care if it was during a half hour break. They looked at it as "abusing the clock." Pffft, whatever! They seriously wonder why their CSA standing is worse than Western Express' standing. A friggin' LTL company's CSA is worse than that company's standing. It takes talent to accomplish that.

 

but how da heck did they know, when you were on your break, and you took a nap..??

on board cameras..???

 

Company snitches.

 

I replied a few pages back, when this thread was new, that 20 minute power naps help me a lot, a short nap gives me at least two hours of alert driving.

But it isn’t always practical to pull over and nap, particularly if schedule is tight or if you’re getting close to wherever you’re planning on stopping anyway. I’ve used a number of tricks, the most effective involve some kind of eating or drinking. For a long time, I used either Altoids peppermints or Brach’s Lemon Drops, just that little bit of extra stimulation makes a big difference when I’m just starting to doze.

More recently, I started bringing a large bag of dry roasted peanuts that I’ll shell and eat a few at a time. Again, the stimulation of tasting, chewing, and swallowing helps, plus the action of opening up the peanuts as well. It’s a little messy, but not difficult to sweep the shells and dust out when I stop.