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I was driving back from my best friends wedding in DFW rather late a couple weekends ago. I was sleepy and I am betting money swerving just a tad bit because it had been a long day (and no...no drinking was involved before someone asks). Noticed a vehicle pull up rather briskly behind me and just follow for a good 3/4 of a mile. Officer lights me up and I pull over, turn on the overhead light, roll down the driver window, and hands on the wheel. I was very exhausted and I didn't even notice he had come up on the passenger window so I looked like an idiot fumbling with window controls. Said he paced me going 77 to which I replied I thought it was 70 MPH and I had my cruise set. He informed me of a speed reduction to 60 where he originally paced me. He then said earnestly that given the time (2AM) there are a lot of drunk drivers out and that is why he pulled me over. I gave him my credentials, and he asked if I was armed to which I told him I had one (Ruger LCP) in my pocket and one in the dash compartment (Taurus 709). He simply said alright and told me to wait. After a longer than expected pause, he returned to say everything checked out and that I was free to go. He was very courteous, honest, and I am very glad he wasn't overly concerned about the firearms. Very positive experience and I wish i could let Temple PD that at least that officer made me think highly of their city and LEOs.

P.S. I know better than anyone sleepy driving can be as bad as drunk driving and the officer wouldn't have let me continue if I hadn't been alert enough to be on the road. Just trying to fend off the flamers who ALWAYS abide by EVERY driving law

Good to hear it was a good contact. Road hypnosis can be as bad as drunk driving. There has been a few times I have drove when I was too exhausted to be doing so. Better the officer was safe then sorry. If he lets just one car go that looks like it's swerving that could be the one that gets down the road and hurts somebody.

It was also very courteous for him to let you go without a ticket. He was probably just glad that you hadn't been drinking.

Why do you think he came up on your passenger side? Maybe a safety issue? One of our Officers here on the board will probably be able to answer that question for me.

kalipsocs said: Very positive experience and I wish i could let Temple PD
that at least that officer made me think highly of their city and LEOs.

You don't have to just wish. Get the Temple PD's address somewhere and drop the
TPD chief a written note, either with or without your name. The chief and the officer
involved would be tickled.

LEO's approach on the passenger side for their own safety (from being struck by idiots),
it may surprise the driver, and the LEO gets a good view of what's in the front seat.

Notice also that many LEO's will park their cruiser at an "11 o'clock" position behind the
person' they've stopped. The left front of the cruiser will now present somewhat of a
cushion when an idiot driver crashes. I guess the LEO can swivel his dashcam so that
it still captures the stop correctly.

SIA

I know this thread is somewhat old, but have not read this forum is a few months so I spent part of today catching up. One thing I would like to pass on to the members here is the absolute best way to stay awake while driving I have ever found.

Sunflower Seeds... the un-shelled ones that you crack in your mouth, fish the seed out and spit the hull into a cup.


Believe it... works amazingly well. I discovered this on a church ski trip to New Mexico. I was driving the luggage truck (i.e. pulling a cargo trailer with the groups luggage) and the youth director was with me. He was supposed to spell me off but unbeknownst to me he has some fairly severe sleep apnea and spent the entire trip passed out in the passenger seat. I like to drive so I didn't really mind until around about 03:00 the next morning (yes, we drove straight through) when I started having extreme difficulty staying awake. I tried gum, coffee, candy etc etc. with no luck. I had brought some sunflower seeds because by kids like them and I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. Well, I popped some in my mouth and started cracking and spitting... after awhile I realized I was wide awake but I didn't put 2 + 2 together right away.

One of the things about sunflower seeds is that when you first start, your tongue and lips get a little sore after an hour or two so I quit... and withing 3 or 4 minutes was starting to nod off again... so I thought I'd go back to what had been working, sore tongue/lips or not. Guess what? Loe and behold I was wide awake again. When we finally got to the resort by mouth felt like it had been through the grinder, but I wasn't a red smear on the highway somewhere.

Since then, I've always made a point to have SF seeds on any long trips and have told all my friends, family and acquaintances about them. Every one that has tried them has confirmed their efficacy, including a friend who drove straight through to Florida for an Aikido clinic and then straight through on the return trip. He told me he doesn't think he could have done it without them.

So, try 'em out. If just one of you is better able to stay awake and avoids dying due to sleeping while driving, I'll consider it my good deed for the decade!



One other thing that is very nice about this trick... unlike coffee, you can go to sleep within minutes of quitting and you don't have to stop for bio-breaks every 30 miles/minutes.

I like what I have seen of Temple in general.

As I have gotten older I try to avoid driving at all, never mind long allnighters, but when I have had to do it, the best stay-awake technique I found was to stop every 2 hours (which I generally do to refuel anyway, like to stay well above half) and do some exercises. I usually cranked out 50 push ups. Seems to rev up the metabolism for a good couple hours at least.

One night like some 10 yrs ago, I was driving from Boston to Nashua NH, Midway on rt-3 I almost closed my eyes for like a second that felt like an hour. Lucky me, I was still on the road and in control. However, It freaked me out and I immediately took the first exit and I pulled and parked in the first Gas station. Just before the sun rise, I was awakened by strong knocking on my driver side window, an LEO was using his huge flash light knocking on my window to check on me. I opened my eyes (it seems I was slumped back like a dead man) and explained myself that I was so tired that I could not continue driving at night.

Do not drive while sleepy. It is like driving like drunk.

Not flaming the OP here. My days of all night driving excursions are over. Irritates my beloved a little as she likes to get off work on Friday sometimes and go up to Topeka, KS from here in DFW. Eight hour run.....after getting up at 5 am and working hard all day, its just not as feasible safely. I told her that from now on we took the Friday or the Monday off and made it a reasonable daylight drive. Besides that, after working all day and driving all night, I slept all the next day, didn't sleep well that night and then had to drive home. Great weekend for her, sleeping on the way up, enjoying her family time Saturday and a restful run home Sunday evening. Not anymore.......

Glad it turned out ok for you.

To add to the experiences of sleepy driving….I was cruising up 59 north around 1 AM, exhausted. My eyes were getting really heavy and all of a sudden I shot up from my seat after drifting into the next lane. Fortunately no one was around me.

But now when I take trips…I stop at the gas station and get an energy drink

I recall driving along the highway that parallels the border going east to Brownsville at zero-dark-early. Everyone else in the car was sound asleep and I was tired as you-know-what trying to get to Brownsville and a bed.
I was pulled over by a cop that noticed my high rate of speed and the wee hour of the night. I think all that he really wanted to do was make sure that I was not up to something bad. He noticed that while he was talking to me not a soul in the car had woke up.
He said that he understood that I was in a hurry to get home and to bed, but that I needed to slow down and observe the speed limits.
I have no idea what agency he was with as I was too tired to notice, and too alarmed that I had been stopped.

I think he served his purpose. The adrenaline rush of being pulled over woke me up, I slowed down, and drove on to Brownsville and got to tell my story to everyone else in the car once they woke up.

He didn't even issue me a warning.

surprise_i'm_armed wrote: Notice also that many LEO's will park their cruiser at an "11 o'clock" position behind the
person' they've stopped. The left front of the cruiser will now present somewhat of a
cushion when an idiot driver crashes. I guess the LEO can swivel his dashcam so that
it still captures the stop correctly.

Yup. The angle of the wheels and car allow you someplace to get cover when bullets start flying (behind engine block and wheels). Also he'll park more to the left than the violator to create a "lane" of protection from traffic on the approach to the vehicle.

There are great reasons for Driver vs Passenger side approach. I use both depending on the situation, roadway, and time of day.