Fighting Fatigue

Recognizing and dealing with drowsiness can help prevent costly accidents.

Telltale signs are excessive blinking, head bobbing, trying to refocus your eyes. You find yourself drifting in your traffic lane or into other lanes. You lose track of mile markers or miss your exit. You are surprised by overtaking traffic in lanes next to yours.

Taking a rest break out on the road will help fend off fatigue until you go off duty and can get sleep.

It’s past time to pull off the road and take a break. You may be suffering from fatigue. Physical and emotional stress, sleep loss and prolonged work all result in fatigue and performance that is well less than 100 percent. Fatigue may increase the chances of sleepiness, but it’s not synonymous with sleepiness, says Dr. Jeff Durmer, chief medical officer for FusionSleep.

Recognizing you are fatigued may be difficult, Durmer says, because people often fight it. For many, warning signs are the inability to keep your eyes open or committing errors of commission — shifting gears when it’s not necessary — or omission, such as failure to look at your speedometer or notice your turnoff. “It’s unfortunate that a lot of these errors are not something we can detect personally before they happen,” he says.

Other signs you may be suffering fatigue are headaches or blurry vision, Durmer says, or maybe you’re unable to concentrate.

Gerald P. Krueger, PhD, principal in Krueger Ergonomics, says the most common response when truckers are asked how they know they are too drowsy to continue driving is when their eye scan pattern is compromised. As Krueger tells it, drivers say, “All of a sudden another vehicle shows up at my left front bumper.”