Profile For Chris H.

Evening truckers. Im sure this has been asked a million times on here, but I'm going to ask again. I am brand new to trucking. This is my 2nd week with a trainer OTR and while I've always driven for a living, tow truck/school bus I am not used to driving such long hours everyday.

My concern is when I wake up I'm refreshed and ready to go, but within 30 mins of heading down the road I feel mentally exhausted as to where I can close my eyes for a split 2nd. I feel like I havent slept in days. im really worried about it that it will be an on going thing or is this something new drivers go through? And if so, how to beat it?! We been driving in the AM (which I hate getting up early.) But as soon as I'm not driving..such as taking my 10 hour (like now) I feel wide awake.

I have many more concerns such as backing and others but those can be discussed later...

HELP!!

That used to happen to me when I was driving 5 ton trucks as a crew leader for a construction company. I was sleeping around 6 hours a night. Felt fine I thought. Wrong. There's this thing called sleep debt. It means that every hour you miss hangs over your head day after day. They say one night of not sleeping 7.5-8 hours (really sleeping) reduces your cognitive ability by like %30 or something. Don't quote me but it's close. My guess is either sleep deprivation, poor sleep quality or diet.

Are you eating/drinking a lot of carbs/sugar? Have you ever had a sleep study done? Do you sleep like a rock or toss and turn? Do you snore?

If you get a few days of 8 hour sleep nights, real restful sleep, you should be fine. I swear I had the same exact problem. It was the weirdest thing. I would feel sleepy and have someone else drive, then I would sit in the passenger seat wide awake.

I dont snore. I usually get 6-7 hrs sleep, but I'm not used to sleeping in a sleeper cab, especially top bunk so yea I toss and turn. my trainer snores. He uses a CPAP machine. I drunk a Monster...which I usually don't do because the high caffeine usually makes me have a panic attack but it really helped. I had a KickStart in the AM and it did nothing. When I went home on Saturday I slept almost 9.5 nonstop hours. 😟😟

Evening truckers. Im sure this has been asked a million times on here, but I'm going to ask again. I am brand new to trucking. This is my 2nd week with a trainer OTR and while I've always driven for a living, tow truck/school bus I am not used to driving such long hours everyday.

My concern is when I wake up I'm refreshed and ready to go, but within 30 mins of heading down the road I feel mentally exhausted as to where I can close my eyes for a split 2nd. I feel like I havent slept in days. im really worried about it that it will be an on going thing or is this something new drivers go through? And if so, how to beat it?! We been driving in the AM (which I hate getting up early.) But as soon as I'm not driving..such as taking my 10 hour (like now) I feel wide awake.

I have many more concerns such as backing and others but those can be discussed later...

HELP!!