Higway hypnosis

You’ve come across this article probably because you have already experienced highway hypnosis and are wondering what exactly happened to you and how to explain it. There is a high probability that you are a driver not very often traveling on long distances using highways.

I guess on the basis that as a professional driver you would already be perfectly aware of highway hypnosis. But fed up with this guessing, let’s get to the point and answer the question of what highway hypnosis is.

What is highway hypnosis ?

For some people driving a car is a pleasure for others. The greater the difference between people, the longer the route will be. Moving on local roads we must constantly be focused, we receive many external signals in the form of images, sounds and sometimes smells.

Increased vigilance does not allow road hypnosis, which usually appears on expressways during long journeys. Motorway hypnosis begins when you drive over a section of the route and it’s hard to tell you what happened during it because you thought about it for a very long time.

When driving on the highway, it is easy to drift away in your own thoughts, especially if you are an experienced driver who feels confident at high speeds and has traveled the highways many times.

Then we act instinctively, and our actions should be more precisely defined as automatic. Behavior automation occurs mainly in people learned and trained for a given task. If you work in a factory and your work is based on the same tasks every day, you can often let your thoughts drift away and do your work simultaneously, e.g. thinking about what bills you have to pay or what to do for dinner.

In the case of a car, you deal with hypnosis, trance or even amnesty. You are probably wondering at this point what effect such driving trance has on safety. The answer is simple, small, no or even positive. Highway hypnosis is safe, it is not a condition that turns off our brains, even though we do not remember a given section of the route, and it can be even hundreds of miles, we were constantly alert and ready to react to events.

You should distinguish the state of hypnosis / trance from falling asleep at the wheel, these are two completely different things, of which the latter is very dangerous and was combined with highway hypnosis, but now these two things are definitely separating.

Highway hypnosis definition

Highway hypnosis is also known as white line fever and is defined as an altered mental state in which a person can drive a wheeled vehicle (car, truck, truck) over long distances in a safe and correct way, responding appropriately to traffic incidents, despite not remembering selected sections of the route. The driver’s mind then deals with other matters while subconsciously still observing the road.

It is a manifestation of the process of automaticity in which consciousness and subconsciousness are able to focus on various tasks. Such a process is possible for people who have practiced a given activity to a level that allows to delegate part of consciousness to other tasks. Precisely for this reason, highway hypnosis occurs mainly in experienced drivers or those who follow the learned route.

As wikipedia says:

The concept of “highway hypnosis” was first described in a 1921 article that mentioned the phenomenon of “road hypnotism”: driving in a trance-like state while gazing at a fixed point. A 1929 study, Sleeping with the Eyes Open by Walter Miles, also dealt with the subject, suggesting that it was possible for motorists to fall asleep with their eyes open and continuing to steer.

Hypnosis-induced amnesia is usually partial, we check exits from time to time or there is a situation that is memorable. However, on a long route, where it is known that there is 600 miles to cover and nothing will happen while driving, we can experience complete misery.

How to avoid highway hypnosis

Hypnosis is mistakenly considered dangerous by some parties because the authors mix up the concepts of fatigue and hypnosis. The truth is that highway hypnosis will not affect many inexperienced people, because their senses will be strenuous and will watch the road very closely. However, if you wanted to avoid hypnosis, you can use the following tips:

1. Use frequent stops – plan your route well in advance by taking 10 minute stops every hour. This way you will have reference points for the distance traveled, which will make it harder to cause amnesia. Such a solution will also effectively knock you out of falling into hypnosis.

2. Take a passenger with you – if you have the opportunity to travel with some passenger, preferably one who will not sleep and will talk to you, but not intense enough to distract you.

3. Drink coffee – drinking coffee can cause a surge of energy in the near future, but remember that this is not a guarantee to avoid hypnosis. This solution will be much more useful when falling asleep.

4. Give up comfort – do something to make driving less enjoyable. Reducing comfort will make it more difficult for you to swim away. Setting the air conditioning to the maximum level and a cold shiver can be an idea.

How not to fall asleep behind the wheel

A separate thread is falling asleep at the wheel. This phenomenon is much more dangerous, and you should be properly prepared for the route so as not to endanger yourself and other road users. Below is a list that will help combat fatigue.

1. Maintain the correct posture – Maintaining good posture forces you to focus, often shortening some muscles, and also provides good blood flow in the body.

2. Take breaks – As in the fight against highway hypnosis, so as to fight fatigue, taking breaks and taking a breath is a very reasonable solution.

3. Sleep – If you feel your eyes are closing soon, take advantage of the first stop and sleep. It is better to be tens of minutes or hours late than never to arrive.

4. Don’t go alone – One of the best methods is to bring a person who will not let you fall asleep. This is the simplest and most effective method, of course, if your passenger does not fall asleep. In addition, if that person is a driver, you can change.

5. Drive slowly – Adjust your speed to weather conditions and just drive slower. This behavior will reduce braking distance and reduce injury in the event of an accident.

6. If you are not a person who leads a night life, do not drive between midnight and 6am. At this time, your body’s rhythm usually has the most intense sleepiness.

7. Drink coffee – Caffeine perfectly stimulates the body for quite a long time. Avoid energy drinks and sweets. They generate a short-term energy addition and then a sudden drop in strength.

8. Travel by day – Whenever you have the opportunity, do not postpone travel to the evening, do not try to “save” in this way. Driving in good lighting when the body is not tired of the day minimizes the risk of falling asleep.

9. Turn on the music – Listening to music can lead to some kind of trance , which in this case is unwanted. For music to be effective, it must be alive, operating at a frequency higher than our heartbeat. You can also listen to music you hate, which will reduce your sense of comfort.

10. Open windows – Oxygenate the body. The effect will be especially good when you have a pleasant warm temperature in the car and it is cold outside. An open window on the highway does not necessarily have to be something pleasant, but in a sense this is also the case.

It is always best to prevent it, although it is often impossible to plan everything. Long journeys usually do not appear suddenly and you can equip yourself with coffee and a good friend who will talk to us.

To sum up the topic, if you ask yourself: what is highway hypnosis aceable? The answer is yes. The phenomenon is common and affects many drivers. However, this does not mean that you should be afraid of him or fight him.

Fatigue combined with driving a car is definitely more dangerous. Follow our advice to avoid unpleasant incidents on the road resulting from weakness. As for highway hypnosis itself and the fight against it, there is no such need