Sleeping In The Truck Without Being Bothered?

Newbie is losing sleep over this:

I'm concerned i won't get any normal sleep driving OTR. Always having in the back of my mind someone can knock on your door in the middle of the night wether it be another driver, a lot lizard, a cop whoever. Then you have to worry about someone trying to break in at night. At home when i go to bed i get in my sweatpants and bury myself on the covers. In a truck on the road i don't think i could ever feel that comfortable and i probably would sleep in my jeans all time ready for the unexpected. This is one thing that has me second guessing this as a career.

How well do you sleep? And how often are you bothered in your truck when you are sleeping? Do you get all relaxed like you would at home?

I've been driving for 9 months. I have parked for my 10 hour break in chain lots (Flying J, Loves, etc.) and non-chain (ma + pa) lots, large ones and small ones. In all this time, one girl knocked wanted to sell magazines. One guy knocked, said he was a vet, needed gas money. No lizards bothered me. That's the only "knocking on doors" - seriously - two times. The most bothersome thing for me was the truck next door idling all night. I do not idle, so idling trucks mean I can't really open a window on that side.

The bottom line, except for idling trucks (which won't count if you run yours all night), just draw your privacy curtain across the windshield and go to sleep.

(The closed privacy curtain gambit: No one knows who's in the truck. In that case, they surely do not want to knock a door just to meet a nasty, angry trucker waving a big breaker bar yelling "What the **** do you want!")

As others have said, most places you won't ever get any knocks. I've stayed at a couple of stops where a lizard or 2 would knock but usually they won't. I had one place near Atlanta that I got stuck staying at (traffic jam ate up my hos and I just couldn't make it to the terminal 5 miles away) where I got woken up all night long. I'll never stay there again and to make matters worse the place charged $10 to park there too.

Never had a cop knock on my door and only had another driver do so once. That was my fault though. I didn't notice that I had parked in front of an entrance to the lot. It wasn't well lit and I came in from the other end. I thought I was parking out of the way and did the opposite lol.

So ultimately, most of the time you should sleep fine.

One other tip, if you park in the well lit areas closer to the store, you're less likely to be bothered.

I've never been bothered and have no problem sleeping. I have a memory foam mattress and the truck is running straight pipes which makes it a lot louder than most trucks but while idling, it has the perfect tone for a good night's sleep. Then again, with a military combat background, I can sleep just about anywhere.

Funniest thing just happened...

I'm crashed out on the couch and around 9pm tonight i hear BOOM BOOM BOOM on the front door pretty much scared the chit out of me. Now i was in a deep deep sleep so it took me a minute or so to get up and open my eyes. So i get up and go to the front door and in a serious tone i go who is it! I open the door and nobody was there. Went out later and talked to my neighbor he told me he ordered a delivery of food and went to the wrong door.

Just thought it was funny given the topic of this thread i made. I will probably get disturbed more at my own house then i will in a truck im thinking now haha

OMG! That would have been creeping me out!!!! lol

OMG! That would have been creeping me out!!!! lol

Yeah they banged on that door hard like they were the police. The front door is steel so it amplifies the sound more too.

Newbie is losing sleep over this:

I'm concerned i won't get any normal sleep driving OTR. Always having in the back of my mind someone can knock on your door in the middle of the night wether it be another driver, a lot lizard, a cop whoever. Then you have to worry about someone trying to break in at night. At home when i go to bed i get in my sweatpants and bury myself on the covers. In a truck on the road i don't think i could ever feel that comfortable and i probably would sleep in my jeans all time ready for the unexpected. This is one thing that has me second guessing this as a career.

How well do you sleep? And how often are you bothered in your truck when you are sleeping? Do you get all relaxed like you would at home?

I've been driving for 9 months. I have parked for my 10 hour break in chain lots (Flying J, Loves, etc.) and non-chain (ma + pa) lots, large ones and small ones. In all this time, one girl knocked wanted to sell magazines. One guy knocked, said he was a vet, needed gas money. No lizards bothered me. That's the only "knocking on doors" - seriously - two times. The most bothersome thing for me was the truck next door idling all night. I do not idle, so idling trucks mean I can't really open a window on that side.

The bottom line, except for idling trucks (which won't count if you run yours all night), just draw your privacy curtain across the windshield and go to sleep.

(The closed privacy curtain gambit: No one knows who's in the truck. In that case, they surely do not want to knock a door just to meet a nasty, angry trucker waving a big breaker bar yelling "What the **** do you want!")

That's funny!

If your worried, I heard of drivers hooking a cord between the doors connected to the Air Horn,,, if the doors get openned,,,Big Suprise,,,, never did this -20 to -30 below in ND,,, no problem

I've gotta say that there are times when my sleep is very erratic. There's no such thing as a sleeping schedule when you drive OTR solo and run hard.

In regards to getting knocks on the door, I have to say most of the time when I am getting inconveniently disturbed from me sleep is when I'm at a shipper or receiver. For example say that I'm on a tight schedule and had to drive out my 11 hour clock to make it to a receiver at 1am. At 4am I get woken up by an inconsiderate lumper for my bills when my appnmt time is 9am. On top of that, they need me to move to a door at 5am. Then wait until 8am for the office to open. Then stand in line for awhile. Then when you finally get unloaded, you're not allowed to stay on premises and you need to leave. And since its a tight schedule, yeah, you may want to get going as soon as your hours are back.

In cases like these though, your dispatcher owes you. Just try not to be a grumpy bear about it and your dispatcher will love you.

Does anyone put notes on the door window "do not disturb"?