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What do you do to stay awake on the drive home?

#101
groove pump said:
I wrecked a car once in my younger days. Fell asleep a couple of blocks from my place, but had no idea how exhausted I was - hadn't even been drinking and it was a quick cross-town drive. Nobody got hurt including myself, which was absolutely incredible, since the car got murdered and I even knocked down a utility pole. Miracle witnessed. Lesson learned.

Now I just stack the odds in my favor, especially after a long show where I've spent a whole lotta energy and still need to drive. I might have one beer early in the evening at a gig, but I'll usually make sure that the cold ones are waiting for me in the fridge at home.

I pulled several 9+ hour hauls between home and the Norfolk, VA area back in my navy years. Coffee and chewing tobacco were helpful at first, but that chew is simply nasty stuff. I found that I could stay amped up really well just by keeping a good supply of chewing gum handy. I'm way more frosty behind the wheel when I'm jawing away on that stuff.
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I pretty much don't drink more than a beer at gigs. Sometimes for long night-time car trips I'll have a coke or an iced coffee on the road.
 
#102
Sartori said:
Sleeping for several hours on the side of the road? Are you nuts? Besides the fact that such isn't really that safe, and in some areas likely of dubious legality, keeping the car overnight when someone needs it for work the next day is lame.
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Yup, not being "lame" is totally a legitimate excuse for driving a vehicle whilst incapable to do so.

I'll make certain to tell the court that when I kill someone whilst drink driving :rolleyes:
 
#103
Someone else needs to use the car in the morning for work.

If I have the car out for a gig, I need to get it back before then. A lot of these admonishments to just go to sleep on the side of the road, or rent a motel, seem to ignore the practical realities many people have to deal with.


Also, I never said I drove drunk, so stop making it out like I do. It's a pretty nasty thing to accuse someone of.
 
#104
Sartori said:
Someone else needs to use the car in the morning for work.

If I have the car out for a gig, I need to get it back before then. A lot of these admonishments to just go to sleep on the side of the road, or rent a motel, seem to ignore the practical realities many people have to deal with.


Also, I never said I drove drunk, so stop making it out like I do. It's a pretty nasty thing to accuse someone of.
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OK. Here are some ideas (some are repeats):
1. Get off from your day job early on gig nights and take a nap.
2. Make sure you are well rested DAYS in advance. It is easier to deal with a late drive when you've been well rested days in advance.
3. Eat right. This means, not eating junk food and eating a well balanced diet. Moderate lean proteins, lots of veggies and low carbs.
4. Start an exercise program. If you are in good shape, you can skip your work out program on gig day and save that energy for the gig and drive home.
5. Have someone drive you to a gig so you can sleep during the ride home.
6. Get a bigger car, truck or van so you can car pool with a band mate and sleep on the way home.

I'm sure there are other solutions that I haven't thought of.
 
#106
I have a compilation cd I made with about a dozen metal songs that send chills up my back and hype me up every time I listen to them. Songs so good that they demand to be head banged and sung along to and in general make you poop brix. There's no way to sleep with them on, they are too fun to listen to.

If a drive is more than 2 hours I take a 30m nap at a rest stop sometime during the drive.
 
#107
Frankly, I can't see how anyone has trouble staying up for a 1-2 hour drive home.
Just Sayin'...
Most, (90% +) of my gigs are out of towners. On cover weekends, which are every weekend when we aren't actively on tour, are usually 8-10 hours away and we always leave after our Saturday gig.
I am the lucky guy that gets to do the drive home. Friday night after the gig I stay up late and then everyone in the band knows to let me sleep until around dinner time on Saturday.
I will not drive tired, and it makes way more sense to get rested up and then drive through the night instead of going to bed at 3am and try to leave at 8am.
My drummer always stays up with me and we chat/listen to music quietly. If we have a longer drive than that, like when we're on tour for a few weeks 2 sleep while 2 stay up driving.
We have a saying in the van that goes "you're responsible for the safety of 5 d!cks and 10 b@lls. Pull over if you get tired!" Every time we bring a sub or new person out on the road with us they get the speech.
I guess my point is, proper planning can get you where you need to be safely every time.
 
#108
carl h. said:
Quit gigging, and stop being so selfish.
Totally lame attitude Sartori. Obviously there are more bass players out there. Is it worth it for a couple bux?
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Are you really under the impression that if someone is sleepy there is absolutely nothing that person can do to give them a boost of energy long enough to drive 1-2 hours, other than sleep? If so, I disagree.
 
#111
IMO and IME, nothing you can drink or supplement will have as much effect on your body as alcohol does. If the drive home is long or staying awake is a problem, the most reliable solution is not drinking alcohol that night.

For me, at least, the way I feel at 2AM when abstaining is completely different from the way I feel at 2AM after three or four beers. And the difference lasts through the next day, too. I'll be a zombie all day long if I drink too much the night before, and my kids storm the castle at 7 AM regardless.
 
#112
Sartori said:
Someone else needs to use the car in the morning for work.

If I have the car out for a gig, I need to get it back before then. A lot of these admonishments to just go to sleep on the side of the road, or rent a motel, seem to ignore the practical realities many people have to deal with.


Also, I never said I drove drunk, so stop making it out like I do. It's a pretty nasty thing to accuse someone of.
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Seriously, stop being a dick. No-one accused you of drink-driving.

The problem is, that you don't seem to see the similarities of your argument. As carl h. posted, there are multiple studies showing that driving tired is as bad, if not worse than drunk driving. Yet in your eyes, one is 'nasty' and the other is a 'practical reality'. :hmm:

I don't understand how you don't see the connection. :rollno:
 
#114
It depends a lot on how far I am driving. In the last two months I pulled two 2am-dawn shifts driving with a band in a van. Pretty rough. I use any combination of the following:

5-hour energy
Large truck-stop coffee (those two together will get me pretty far)
cigarettes
mints
eating in general
playing music I can sing along to
books on tape/npr
someone interesting to talk to
my iphone on random

I can't listen to records straight through, because I'll lose interest and keep sleepy... MAYBE Muse I can listen to straight through.
 
#116
WJGreer said:
IMO and IME, nothing you can drink or supplement will have as much effect on your body as alcohol does. If the drive home is long or staying awake is a problem, the most reliable solution is not drinking alcohol that night.

For me, at least, the way I feel at 2AM when abstaining is completely different from the way I feel at 2AM after three or four beers. And the difference lasts through the next day, too. I'll be a zombie all day long if I drink too much the night before, and my kids storm the castle at 7 AM regardless.
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Same. Hence why the most I'll have at a show is a beer, and even then, it's pretty much only something I do for gigs in town, or when I've got gratuitous amounts of energy. If I'm a little tired, no alcohol for me. There are beers at home.
 
#117
MatticusMania said:
Are you really under the impression that if someone is sleepy there is absolutely nothing that person can do to give them a boost of energy long enough to drive 1-2 hours, other than sleep? If so, I disagree.
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I agree with you. An iced coffee or caffeinated soda is quite enough to keep me going, and up for a little while after getting home. Also, both soda and coffee seem to, er, run right through me, so that keeps me up, too, as I don't stop for bathroom breaks on a drive back.
 
#118
Bassmanbob said:
OK. Here are some ideas (some are repeats):
1. Get off from your day job early on gig nights and take a nap.
2. Make sure you are well rested DAYS in advance. It is easier to deal with a late drive when you've been well rested days in advance.
3. Eat right. This means, not eating junk food and eating a well balanced diet. Moderate lean proteins, lots of veggies and low carbs.
4. Start an exercise program. If you are in good shape, you can skip your work out program on gig day and save that energy for the gig and drive home.
5. Have someone drive you to a gig so you can sleep during the ride home.
6. Get a bigger car, truck or van so you can car pool with a band mate and sleep on the way home.

I'm sure there are other solutions that I haven't thought of.
Click to expand...

I do these things already. Well, except five and six, and I should be better about my exercising. That's why I feel it's not that big a deal and don't have that much trouble keeping alert on the drive back, especially with some caffeine (I don't drink much coffee or soda most of the time, so my caffeine sensitivity is pretty low; this makes the effect of a coffee after a gig quite significant).
 

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