Back on Dry Land, Not Out of Danger - Driving Tired After Diving

[bergersau]

All good advice.
Some years ago I had a scare driving home from work tired.
I had a 'Micro Sleep' after turning into my suburban street and started awake after drifting onto the wrong side of the road. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic and I hit nothing. I was probably out for under 10 seconds only but thats all it takes.

I wasn't more than 100 meters before arriving home when I dosed off so don't try to fool yourself that "I'm almost there - I'll make it home safely...".

Be carefull, it can happen to anyone.

 

[Neilwood]

Point taken, although I will note that for me coffee is the nuclear option. I've generally cut caffeine out of my life except as an "emergency resurrection" option; if I have too much during the day (say, two mugs of strong coffee) I'm going to be jittery as hell for at least eight hours and probably longer. The crash doesn't hit until after my usual bedtime. Sleep is a far better option and is what I will aim for, but if that option is not available I have a workable backup.

Another option is to do what I used to and opt for Sunday dives; it's a lot easier to have Saturday to rest up from the work week and have a fresh start to the dive day.



My dive log for that day was as follows; we first hit the water at 0900 and I got out at 1330:

Dive 1: 36% EAN, max depth 89 ft with a long and slow ascent (midwater drift), total dive time 56 minutes, 53-minute SI.
Dive 2: 37% EAN, max depth 66 ft with a slow ascent (stationary on wreck and then drifting on the way up), total dive time 47 minutes, 53-minute SI.
Dive 3: 37% EAN, repeat of dive 2 profile for total dive time of 59 minutes.

So even with pretty good nitrox mixes and the second pair of dives not being particularly deep or strenuous, that was still a lot of nitrogen on top of a short ration of sleep. Arguably by the time it was over simple fatigue put me far, far more at risk of grievous bodily harm than the dozen or so lemon sharks on the second pair of dives.

Sleep IS by far the better option as you will only know if the caffeine has worked if you get home. Depending on how tired you are and what is making you tired (nitrogen loading), caffeine might mask it initially but wear off more quickly. I have driven tired loaded with caffeine but still felt my eyes closing and it is not a situation I would like to repeat.

 

[lv2dive]

Appreciate the OP and everyone's thoughts. I have a five hour commute I make fairly regularly and this week the other side of the highway was backed up for miles - i noted the backup after I saw the life flight helicopter land on the highway. They had stopped traffic on both sides for the landing. I'd never seen anything like that and it was very sobering. Keep safe, everyone.

 

[iamrushman]

good point...thanks for sharing...glad you and everyone else is O.K>......

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Figured I would tack an addendum onto this, where I had a similar situation crop up and dealt with it.

About two months ago I got a last-minute invite to do a daytrip to Tiger Beach; the instructions were to meet in West Palm Beach at 5:45 am. So I sacked out around 7 pm Friday night, woke up at 2 am so I could get prepped and make two pit stops (one to pick up my tanks at the office and one to pick up extra cash for the ride), got to the marina about an hour early, and we headed off for a long, fine day of swimming with lemons and reefies - burned one tank of 21% and did a lot of repetitive freediving down to about 40-45 ft. The boat got back into West Palm at 8:45 pm and I stopped off for dinner at the local pub (no alcohol, just needed food), and hit the road probably around 9:30-10 pm.

Around 10:30-11 I'm recognizing the signs and figure uh-oh, not going to stay awake for the rest of the drive. I picked an exit, found an IHOP, and ordered a pot of coffee. Those who know me will comment that local Air Traffic Control should have been alerted, because one cup is usually my rarely-used emergency "revive in case of death" option. My internal monologue proceeded as follows:

First cup, heavily sweetened: "Well crap, this isn't doing anything."
Second cup, same: "$#*^, did she give me decaf by accident?"
Final half-cup: "Well, 10 sugar packets ought to at least do something."
...
About 10 minutes later: "CanIhavethecheckpleaseokaythanksbyekeepthechange!"

Drove home WIDE awake, tossed my gear in the tub, slept for 7 hours, then woke up with nerves jangling and sweating coffee out of my pores for about the next 10 hours. I may have used a little too much caffeine and sugar, but it beat splattering myself across several lanes of I-95.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Now if you could just learn to avoid freediving after scuba diving...

 

[kablooey]

This thread is turning into a confessional!

Don't forget nutrition.
Low energy and drowsiness can be caused by not eating properly.

I had a very similar experience returning home after a day of diving the wrecks off San Diego. It was an almost exact carbon copy of the OP's incident. Only those plastic bumps called "Bot's Dot's" that separate the lanes woke me up and prevented a serious accident. It still scares me to think about it ten years later.

The charter boat we'd been on was small and provided only packaged snacks like crackers and candy bars. I'd filled up on those all day, which was a mistake and probably contributed to my drowsiness. Now I'm more aware of eating better if I'm going to be driving. For me caffeine helps, but it's not the total solution.

This is an important topic, and seldom discussed. Thanks HalcyonDaze.

 

[Marie13]

I tend to do a lot of driving and long road trips. If I'm tired, I'll pull over in a busy truck stop (I avoid highway rest stops as a woman traveling alone) and take a 30-60 minute nap. I can sleep pretty much anywhere and that nap makes all difference.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Now if you could just learn to avoid freediving after scuba diving...

Yeah, truth be told I didn't even think about that. I did one dive to a max of 45 ft on regular air at the start of the day and then went in on snorkel for the rest. Saved my second tank in case a tiger showed.

 

[DevonDiver]

There's been a couple of studies recently ooking at the persistence of narcosis and blood/brain chemistry that both point towards impaired mental faculty post-dive. In both cases, the recommendation was to account for that impairment in respect to driving, operating machinery etc.

Add to that issues potentially resulting from decompression stress/sub-clinical DCS . . .

It may be prudent to not jump behind a steering wheel shortly after scuba diving.