Feeling sleepy while driving can have catastrophic results. Most of us have experienced drowsy driving at some time. Driving is a time when we need to be alert, but it can sometimes be extraordinarily difficult to stay awake when we are behind the wheel  The AA says

According to official, police recorded accident data, fatigue’s a factor in 2% of all injury accidents, but some studies have suggested that 20% of accidents on major roads can be attributed to tiredness.

The general advice is to stop every two hours for a break, but some people feel tired even when they do this. Some years ago, I started to find it very difficult to stay awake while driving. I felt I was becoming a real danger to myself. In general, I wasn’t over-tired, so I couldn’t understand why this was happening.

Then I realised that I had changed the position of the driver’ seat very slightly. I was now looking up to look through the windscreen. Suddenly it all made sense. I remembered reading something about hypnotherapy and how the process of hypnotherapy is often started.  The hypnotist will get the subject to focus on something a little above their natural sight line. This leads to tiredness. The hypnotist will say something like “you are feeling tired”. The subject thinks that the therapist is able to control how they feel, and so becomes more (or occasionally less) susceptible to further suggestion. The hypnotist is using a natural body reaction. Holding your eyeballs up is tiring!

Once I realised this I changed the position of the car seat, and all was well.

Of course, you still need to stop at least every two hours when driving. But this simple repositioning of the car seat may allow you to be a safer driver.