Instead, keep your eyes moving around by looking into your side and rear-view mirrors and noticing traffic, street signs and other things around you.
If there is more than one licensed driver in the car, take turns behind the wheel. Get out of the car and walk around if it is safe to do so in the location where you’ve stopped. Take regular breaks when going on a lengthy trip.Even if you drink coffee or another caffeinated drink, it may not be enough to keep you fully alert on a long trip. Don’t drive if you haven’t gotten enough sleep or are otherwise feeling drowsy.There are several things you can do to try and avoid highway hypnosis: The condition has even been reported in freight and passenger train operators. Long-haul commercial truckers can fall victim to it, leading to disastrous crashes.
Any driver can experience it, including drivers of cars and other passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, highway hypnosis isn’t an uncommon condition. If nothing unexpected happens during the drive, they may safely arrive where they are going but not remember getting there. If an obstacle appears on the roadway, they may not be aware of it, or they may react to it too slowly and crash. The eyes of drivers experiencing highway hypnosis remain open and they stay conscious, but in a trance-like state. Drowsy drivers may actually shut their eyes and fall asleep, becoming unconscious behind the wheel and losing control of the vehicle.
But highway hypnosis isn’t the same as drowsy driving. Research shows that fatigued or drowsy drivers are more prone to highway hypnosis. When experienced drivers know their routes so well that they don’t have to consciously think about driving, their minds can drift and they can be lulled into a hypnotic state. Highway hypnosis can also affect people who travel the same routes to work, school or elsewhere day after day.
Highway hypnosis is also referred to in scientific circles as driving without attention mode or driving without awareness. It is also called white line fever because the unending highway lines may help to entrance drivers. Highway hypnosis is most likely to happen to drivers traveling long distances on monotonous, straight roadways that have few turns and other attention-grabbing features. What Is the Major Cause of Highway Hypnosis? Unfortunately, in some cases, that “something” may be an accident. A person experiencing highway hypnosis isn’t aware that it is happening until something causes them to snap out of it. They can also choose to stop doing the distracted behavior. A distracted driver chooses to text on their cellphone or eat while behind the wheel.
While highway hypnosis is sometimes classified as a type of distracted driving, it is different because drivers don’t consciously know they are doing it. In simple terms, automaticity is when we have learned something so well that we can do it automatically, or without actively thinking about the steps or processes involved. Researchers say that highway hypnosis occurs because of automaticity. If there are red lights or stop signs, the driver may run right through them.Īs you can see, if a person isn’t driving consciously, with their mind fully engaged on the task, it can lead to deadly injury accidents. For example, if cars suddenly stop or a pedestrian crosses the road, a driver may not react at all or they may react too slowly. They may be able to get from point A to point B safely, but if something unexpected happens on the roadway that requires active thinking and a quick response, it can lead to disastrous consequences. The basic tasks of driving are so ingrained that during highway hypnosis a person drives with no conscious thought of what they are doing. Drivers who experience it are effectively operating their two-ton vehicles on autopilot. Why is highway hypnosis dangerous? Like its name suggests, highway hypnosis is a hypnotic or trance-like state. Have you ever driven somewhere and not remembered all or parts of the trip? Did you wonder how you got to where you were going? If this has happened to you, you may have experienced highway hypnosis, a potentially dangerous condition.