My work kept me sleep deprived for a long time. These 2 things work GREAT.

1) On the highway (or city), get in-the-shell sunflower seeds. The process of using your mouth to shell the seed, spit out the hull, and eat the soft part will keep you awake. I was VERY skeptical when I heard about this, but it works.

2) In the city, when you stop at a light PUT THE CAR INTO PARK. That way if you fall asleep at the light, you don't run the risk of your foot slipping and running into the intersection or the car in front of you.

Sl4sh3r

I always use a moderate dose of porn to stay awake. Porn -- nature's own coffee.

q335r49

Hey, that pictures looks like me most mornings. I drive around at night for work, and then head home in the morning on a 2 hr drive or so. Sometimes, coffee doesn't do it -- coffee + nap at a rest area/park-n-ride lot is key.

I wonder if it works better for older people because they, as a broad generalization, drink less coffee than the 20-25 yr old set? Therefore, it would have more of an effect on their alertness, whereas younger people aren't getting their solid 8hrs of sleep in like they should.

space race ace

Traveled from my hometown to San Antonio for a football game this past weekend - 14 hours there, watched the game, 14 hours back with no sleep. I just got into a weird sort of daze, and whaddyaknow?! I was home.

mgyqmb

No one tried jamming a fork into a socket at a rest stop. Works every time.

DiscoQuinn

No matter how tired you are, napping while behind the wheel never works out. Java is best; spilling it on one's lap is especially effective at warding off the zzzzzzzs. IMHO.

poxpopulus

Great. I thought the article about coffee and procrastination was ridiculous. How about a strong cup of coffee and a quick nap? I think that would be the best of both worlds.

qpease

@mattbrown: agreed.

bdon

Jolt! chewing gum also works very well. I found this out after being lost in Trenton at 3am after a wedding.

bluegoose

That's retarded.

mattbrown

@mattbrown: What incredibly insightful commentary, laced with indications that one has substantial disagreements with the research done supporting the NYT article and alternate sources! I'm also impressed by your alternative suggestions and interesting point of view.

That out of the way. I used to drive 200-400 miles a weekend usually during very late hours, and I found that there's a certain threshhold of tiredness at which coffee just doesn't work anymore - you're still tired, you're just jittery. Before you hit that threshhold though, sometimes the best thing for you is to find a rest stop, stop, get out of the car, and walk around a bit. Sometimes that helps more than anything else.

Although, I have to say, I usually swear by coffee. If I'm past that threshhold though, I keep a small pillow in the backseat for a reason.

phoenix

@mattbrown: and your a fkn disrespectful prick.

Coffee is better than napping for drivers because, for the time it takes to have a good nap (lets say 20 minutes) thats ## of kilometres your behind. The point of drinking coffee while driving is to get to your destination quicker, so that you have your full rest there.

Coming Into The Game, The Superstar Receiver, Of Your Upper Deck Torontooo BJsss

I don't buy it. I get sleepy taking any long drive at night, but after a seven or eight hour nap, and I'm ready to go again.

lascauxcaveman

I looked up the original article in the journal Sleep. The NYT article is slightly misleading, and the Lifehacker title is very misleading. The authors of the study did not directly compare coffee vs. sleep, and thus coffee should not be considered better than sleep at preventing drowsiness while driving (the study measured center line crossings). Instead, the article states that both coffee and napping helped, compared to placebo, and both helped more in younger people. THAT is the point of the article: that young people will see more benefit from coffee and/or napping, compared to middle-aged people: "A significant interaction between age and condition (IRR = 2.27 95% CI, 1.28-4.16 P < 0.01) showed that napping led to fewer inappropriate line crossings in younger participants than in middleaged participants. During napping, young participants slept more (P < 0.01) and had more delta sleep (P < 0.05) than middle-aged participants. "
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In other words, there is no evidence that coffee is better than napping.
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Fact-checking is an essential part of journalism. I expect more from LH. I liked this site better when there were fewer posts, but more insights.

Dave

@okalex: yes. That's what I thought it was until I looked more closely.

justbrag

Does anyone else think that picture looks like a baby with a grown man's head? Creepy.

okalex

I find that energy drinks work pretty well. The key to maximum effectiveness is rolling down the window and screaming at stuff. It exercises your brainus. That's why it works. Sometimes I listen to really crappy talk radio and argue with it. By argue I mean yell. Seriously, yelling at stuff works. Another thing I used to do in high school was listen to drum'n'bass and pretend I was driving a spaceship. High beams are obviously lasers when you're exhausted.

apuesto

I agree with the sunflower and screaming tricks. I personally believe it is the change in noise level that keeps me alert when I become drowsy. For that reason I buy a bag of corn chips, corn nuts or tortilla chips, preferably ones in really noisy bags - when the bag is empty and I start drifting I just squeeze the bag (the one that contained the noisy food, that is) and the crisp crunchy sound keeps me wide awake. Also make sure to keep the temp down and the vents pointed away from your face or else your eyes get heavy.

Another hint for 20+ hour nonstop road trips: only drink water - no coffee or cola or else you have to pee before you need another tank of gas.

Fierock

I heard about this NYT article on the radio and I immediately thought that what was reported flew in the face of all that Lifehacker had taught me about the caffeine nap!

AlexJAnder

The coffee is always the better way to go. From my own personal experiences (once I left Bum-F**k, KY to drive 8 hours back to OH at 3 AM), if it weren't for crappy gas station coffee and a few energy drinks driving at night would be basically impossible.

kbowen327

I drive a ton at night after long days and constantly run into this problem. Cat naps only help me sometimes. Caffeine always works. Unfortunately, getting to sleep when I do get home is the resultant problem. Any ideas how to counteract the caffeine when I get home?

djlurch

This past week I drove straight through from Las Cruces, NM to Winona, MN.... about 1600 miles. I took two one-hour naps and drank a cup of coffee every three hours and was still very alert when I arrived. I agree with SPACE RACE ACE above. I'm 43 and usually get a good night's sleep, but only drink a couple cups of coffee in the morning. With no pre-existing sleep debt, I could easily start one with plenty of cushion. And my body is certainly not used to high doses of caffeine. One more technique I would add is to get out and walk around every couple of hours and even more frequently as you get more tired. Get that blood flowing.

peacefulbirder