Don't sleep and drive.

mircrosleeps while driving are very bad.

Or maybe he'd switch seat with Sanae for a while if he's really that tired.

Mr.Obake said:
Or maybe he'd switch seat with Sanae for a while if he's really that tired.

You really don't remember when Sanae drives, right?
Anyways, this reminds me of one of my trips where I slept in a service area particularly in the middle of nowhere.

It's rough; even if you suddenly get sleepy on an expressway, there's no way you can pull over on the shoulder and take a nap. Taking quick breaks is important.

Comic Treasure 21 kicks off today in Osaka. I'll be waiting Building #5, Booth Hi-23a, Studio Hamachi-gumi.

Reader-added quotes include "Napping while driving is absolutely out!" "Your life almost flashed before your eyes, eh, Kogasa-san", and "Sanae-san makes the sick person drive".

The survey is about ways to deal with the problem:

What should you do when you get sleepy?
• Take a break immediately
• Drink coffee
• Chew gum
• Open a window
• Sing a song

Indefinity said:
Anyways, this reminds me of one of my trips where I slept in a service area particularly in the middle of nowhere.

I've done that, too. Microsleeping while driving is extremely dangerous and I'm quite prone to it. I once drove home after being up for more than 36 hours with no sleep. It was only 20km to my home, so I figured I'd make it easily. Mistake. About halfway, I was repeatedly microsleeping, even while being counscious about it. I could literally sit and fall asleep. I knew it was close, when all sounds around me suddenly disappeared. Each time they did, I slapped my face, hard. It helped, and I finally reached home, after what seemed an eternity.

Add another to the microsleep drivers list. Nothing quite so terrifying than to blink and suddenly you're hurtling straight toward a median.

Astrojensen said:
I've done that, too. Microsleeping while driving is extremely dangerous and I'm quite prone to it. I once drove home after being up for more than 36 hours with no sleep. It was only 20km to my home, so I figured I'd make it easily. Mistake. About halfway, I was repeatedly microsleeping, even while being counscious about it. I could literally sit and fall asleep. I knew it was close, when all sounds around me suddenly disappeared. Each time they did, I slapped my face, hard. It helped, and I finally reached home, after what seemed an eternity.

I also microsleep and it's so frequent when I have heqvy work.
What I do is prick myself with a clean needle if the service road is still to far or drink coffee in my car. This only happens when I take 2-day or more roadtrips. Chewing gum is okay too but your gums will feel stiff after a while. Opening windows if you are in an expressway is pretty decent. And the song works if you can't sleep with a song but that is a 1 to 10 chance of someone based on a study. The best thing to do is find the nearest service area and sleep. Trust me I almost crashed into a wall twice.

I do combination of all but coffee... warm liquid makes me drowsier =_=;

I don't stay up as long as some of you here, but listening to hard rock or metal helps me stay awake on the road. Singing along helps even more if I'm awake enough for it. Caffeine, from what I can tell, has no discernible effect on me.

The FAA and NTSB have done extensive studies of fatigue. Their findings indicate that fatigue causes degradation of reaction time and decision making capability equivalent to alcohol intoxication, even before reaching the point of losing consciousness. If you are experiencing loss of consciousness or "microsleep", you need to realize YOU ARE ALREADY IMPAIRED. It will not get better, the loss intervals will slowly increase until you stop for rest or your luck runs out. This is such a serious issue that trains and aircraft carry special equipment and procedures for detection and mitigation of fatigued operation. Just because you don't have the NTSB to pick through your wrecks and incidents doesn't mean you shouldn't take it just as seriously. Fatigued driving can and will kill you! Stopping somewhere for rest might make you late, but it will save your life and possibly the lives of whoever was in the car you were going to run into. It's better to arrive late than never.

I'd take a break. Not neccessarily sleep, maybe just move around a bit, do a few kicking exercises, walk a few rounds in the service area, take a bathroom break, maybe go inside to get some light in my eyes.
I've driven extended periods before, but I never felt tired at the wheel: there's always something to keep my mind engaged, even if it's not the act of driving as such.

I just did a quick search through the Summary of Mishaps and turned up the following items:

A lance corporal from a Marine Corps aviation squadron was heading back to base on a highway. He had fallen asleep, swerved to the right, hit some dirt on the side of the road, and overcorrected. His vehicle rolled. He was uninjured, but his insurance company got a bill for $15K.

An AMS3 was driving a rented 2005 Chrysler Sebring on an interstate. He woke up plowing down in the median, yanked the wheel to try to get back on the paved surface, and rolled the car instead. Totaled the Chrysler, to the tune of $20K. He was uninjured.

A lance corporal in Arizona had traveled what the report described as "long distances" and was a mere 13 miles from his duty station when he nodded off at the wheel of his Chevy at 2330. The car rolled three times. This automotive alarm clock cost $7,508.

Before sunrise, an E-6 was riding his motorcycle to work. An E-4 from another command was driving his car in the oncoming lane of traffic. At an intersection, the E-4 made a quick left turn in front of the motorcycle. He then slowed and stopped, thinking that an approaching vehicle was going to run a stop sign. He didn't pick out the motorcycle's headlight from the other headlights of approaching cars and trucks that were farther away. The E-6 crashed into the car's front right funder at about 35 miles per hour. The E-6 slammed into the car's windshield and was killed instantly. The E-4 reported having three beers with dinner the night before and had spent the night at a friend's house, where he had slept from 2330 until 0445. However, his B.A.C. was 0.045, which, combined with five hours of sleep and the pre-dawn darkness, was more than enough to impair his judgment and driving skills.

One summer night in Southern California, a Marine and a buddy visited the buddy's parents. About a half-hour before midnight, the Marine began driving his friend's car back to his barracks. A little less than an hour later, traveling south on an interstate, he apparently fell asleep and veered off the highway. The car hit a call box and kept going down a brush-covered embankment. Investigators figured that he woke up and regained control, since the car traveled more than 700 feet. The Marine may have thought that he saw a chance to get back on the road, but he didn't see the concrete culvert that he crashed into. Severe blunt trauma to his head and upper torso were fatal. A passing motorist had reported the initial crash, but local police couldn't find the car because of darkness and the distance the car had traveled. A trucker reported the wrecked vehicle at 0800. The PFC had had three and a half hours of sleep in the previous 24 hours.

At 0345, a seaman from a destroyer was riding in a car on an interstate, heading back to his ship, about 90 miles away. He was asleep. Eventually, so was the driver, who lost control, awoke, swerved to avoid traffic and skidded into a tree. The car took the impact on the passenger side door, leaving the seaman in critical condition. At the time of the report, he was in a medically induced coma because of brain injuries.

At 0630 in Florida, another seaman from another destroyer was driving his new Ford Explorer back to the ship. He fell asleep 18 miles away, drifted off the road and overcorrected. The Ford crashed and rolled. He suffered severe injuries to his head and died five days later.

This should be enough to get the point across.
Try not to join these guys, OK?

I just noticed that even in Kogasa's fatigue-induced happy hallucination, Sanae's mad at him...

Probably for falling asleep at the wheel.

I remember seeing a study on TV once where they took a group of drivers, had them drink, then drive on an obstacle course, then turned around and let the same people try to drive the same course while fatigued. The drivers did worse while they were tired. Always drive on the buddy system when going long distance.

I like Kogasa-san's little dream world. Looks like a happy place, even with Sanae-san being mad.

For the poll, opening a window usually helps, moreso when it's really cold outside.

I'm surprised they drive everywhere as doesn't Japan have a pretty through mass transit system?

If they took trains everywhere, they couldn't stop at service areas for snacks and souvenirs.

Truth tag added, because falling asleep at the wheel is a Very Bad Thing (and is depicted as such in this 4koma).

Genichiro said:
I remember seeing a study on TV once where they took a group of drivers, had them drink, then drive on an obstacle course, then turned around and let the same people try to drive the same course while fatigued. The drivers did worse while they were tired. Always drive on the buddy system when going long distance.

I like Kogasa-san's little dream world. Looks like a happy place, even with Sanae-san being mad.

For the poll, opening a window usually helps, moreso when it's really cold outside.

I remember a study like that on Mythbusters.