The no-nap-cap

I have an amazing ability... I can fall asleep from being wide awake in just a few seconds... but only if I am driving.  ugh.

You can imagine that this skill has created some interesting times on long driving trips and even occasionally on my short commute to work.  What's a guy to do???  I had a sleep study done and found out that I have sleep apnea.  I got a CPAP and that helped tremendously with my daytime sleepiness... except as soon as I touch a steering wheel!

Driving sleepiness is a big problem.   http://www.drowsydriving.org/ is a site devoted to helping people be more aware of the dangers.  It is as dangerous as driving drunk! Here are a few highlights from the drowsy driving site:

• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that at least 100,000 police-  reported crashes each year are the direct result of driver fatigue. (NHTSA)

• Each year drowsy driving crashes result in at least 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in monetary losses. (NHTSA)

• Approximately 11 million drivers admit they have had a crash or near crash because they dozed  off or were too tired to drive. (2005 Sleep in America poll)

• According to NSF surveys, half of Americans consistently report that they have driven drowsy and approximately 20% admit that they have actually fallen asleep at the wheel in the previous year.

So, I am not alone.  Some states have moved toward serious consequences for sleepy drivers.  In Massachusetts in 2007, Senator Richard Moore pushed for a law to make it vehicular homicide if a sleepy driver causes a fatal accident.  If passed they would join with New Jersey in charging sleepy drivers.

I "got my wake up call" in a little nicer manner.  One year as we were loading up the car to start a long trip my wife set a cold spray bottle on the console between us.  She looked me in the eye and said "go ahead, make my day".  The fear of having my ear filled with icy spray was enough to keep me awake!  It also reminded me of a Japanese invention I read about that I can not find by searching the internet... weird.  It was a pair of glasses that had a small refrigeration unit - possibly electrothermal cooling - that cooled the g-jo acupressure points (http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/G-Jo_Acupressure_Instant_Relief_With_The_Touch_of_a_Finger.html) on the forehead to reduce sleepiness.  Try as I did, I could not find anything about the right g-jo points either!  ..maybe I was dreaming...  (Now the Japanese have a new thing with glasses.  They sense the tilt of the head and if you nod off they vibrate in your ear!  It interrupts the sleep inducing alpha waves!  They say it tickles too!  If I get sleepy in a meeting, I crunch on carrots! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/1522985/How-the-Japanese-are-getting-a-buzz-out-of-falling-asleep-at-work.html, http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/30/mydo-bururu-glasses-vibrate-your-dome-to-prevent-sleep/)

Anyway, here is what I did to significantly reduce my drowsiness - after working on my sleep problems of course!  I decided that I did not need some fancy glasses to cool my pate!  Instead, I would use a swamp cooler!  That is how I cool my house, so why not my head?

I got a cheap, light brown terry cloth towel and cut it into a long rectangle about 4" by 12".  I folded the short edges in to the middle, then folded it in half again.  Now, I had a nice neat 4" x 3" terry pad.  I got the pad wet and let evaporation do the cooling.  I put the pad on my head and enjoyed a very awake and comfortable trip -- no spray in the ear!

I sometimes put ice in the upper fold to jump start the cooling, but usually it is not necessary.  I keep the pad quite wet - just short of it dripping.  I now carry a pad and a re-filled bottle of water in my car at all times.  I think it has saved my life!  If I see a sleepy driver on the road, I want to roll down my window and tell him about the no-nap-cap, or maybe grab a spray bottle.  : )?

btw... One young person was bugging me at work about my cap idea and how it would not work for him.  I agreed.  He had a very thick head of hair!  I told him that memories are processed during sleep and that the more intelligent you are, the more your brain heats up and wants to sleep.  That is why God gave older and wiser men a bald pate to help keep their brains cool.  In some cases, the intelligence was so extreme that even the bald pate was not enough to cool the brain, so it takes a little help from a moist pad.  He just walked away.  I suppose it beats slapping someone.