Yourself?

Driver's High

I almost died today again. This is like the third time I've almost died in the past two weeks. Kinda scary how easily it is to go when you're driving around.

It's a mixture of fatigue and lack of choice that makes us take risks and drive while totally tired, like when I sent Liyana home, I made it to her house, but getting back on my own without someone to talk to and having to drive almost 30 mins in the dark was pretty scary.

I had to drive my mum to work some days too when I wanted the car, and my mum has the annoying habit of waking me up after she has dressed, and had breakfast, cos she wants me to sleep more. But that doesn't even give me time to grab a coffee.

Today's the best. I actually groggily slept my way in the car, and realized when I reached the airport that I didn't have a cup of coffee or anything to eat this morning, and I didn't have my glasses. So I made my way back in a fog of blurry stuff. And I couldn't call anyone to have a cheerful conversation, so all I managed to do was to sniff some Axe brand oil (which saved my life this occasion and a bunch of times before) and try to stay awake.

When I say I almost died, it's due to a phenomenon called microsleeping. And today, I microslept during a curve, and ended up in the next lane just inches away from a truck in front of me. Luckily the road was clear, and I had a big enough shock to step on the brake and slow down. It's the first time I actually changed lanes while microsleeping. The other times I maintained the same lane so it wasn't nearly as dangerous.

I couldn't read the road signs either unless I was really close. So I was peering while trying to keep my eyelids open with levator palpebrae superioris, while snifting the oil with the other hand, while driving with one hand. But I made it back to write this so all's fine :D

Hmm... I was very intrigued by the neurological aspects of it though. The thing about lifting up your eyelids consciously to fight sleep, I can see as long as my pupils do not descend into darkness. The lack of sense when you feel horribly tired, like when Axe Oil smells like candy, you know your senses are dulled. How motor functions are retained, but retarded due to the decrease in feedback between hands and eyes. How you feel hungry acutely, like it feels almost direct. How your mind gets very confused when you look into the rear view mirror. I know my mind couldn't handle all that information and when I looked into the mirror i blanked out.


Interesting isn't it, as I found out in Australia, I'm pretty analytical while drunk. I just can't do anything about it.

posted by Downhere. @ 8:06 am