Microsleep — My Personal Experience of A Potent Driving Hazard
Stay alert and stay alive into 2025.
Little things do matter and cause great consequences.
The above quip is from my high school maths teacher. Back then, Mr. Aŕaroḿi used that phrase to drive home some tricks and quirks of mathematics.
He also used this to illustrate that seemingly insignificant choices today can significantly affect our future.
For example -9 * -9 will not give you the same answer as -9 * 9. While the former product raises you by 81, the latter puts you back by 81 (that is -81).
No where is the impact of small things more immediate and poignant than the risks and hazards posed by microsleeping while driving.
Try as we may, no man can cheat nature. Microsleeping will catch up on you if you’ve had a sleepless night, or been at work without a respite of sufficient hours of sleep and rest.
Drivers and all workers are susceptible to micro-sleep and its attendant hazards and accident risks.
Writing in SleepFoundation.org, Jay Summer and Dr Anis Rehman describe microsleep as follows,
The term microsleep refers to very short periods of sleep that can be measured in seconds, rather than minutes or hours…. A person might nod off during microsleep or keep their eyes open and continue to look awake. Regardless of how someone appears during a microsleep episode, their brain is not processing external information like usual.
In their excellent article, the authors described microsleep, its causes, the risks it poses and how to ward it off.
My Personal Experience of Microsleep
I was seated at the back of the Toyota the with two others. Beside the driver was a soldier. He was our escort. In all, seven of us were heading home from work.
Christmas was six days away, and we were all eager to get home, get done with our post-job reports, and post-job de-briefing.
For most of the journey, our average speed was about 60 kilometres per hour. Repeatedly, we had to nudge the driver to press the throttle. But our driver, a pro, always dancing to his own road tune, never bulged for once.
Unfortunately for us — driver and passengers,, about 20 minutes to the end of our 5 hours trip, microsleep caught up with him, right behind the steering wheel!
Fortunately for us, there was a soldier, our escort seated by his side. His vigilance saved the day for us. Instantly, he alerted our driver.
“Where are you heading to? You are veering off the road!”
From my position at the far back, I saw the driver running at an oblique angle off and away from the road, completely helpless to do anything.
It was all over in about 3 seconds, but in that brief interval, the soldier gently turned the steering wheel the opposite way. With this, our SUV stayed on course. The driver has now returned from his somnolence.
Thanks be to God. We averted the disaster.
Our customer is one of the big-players among Nigerian oil producing companies. Working throughout the other night, my team successfully completed our job in the early morning hours of the previous day.
Having completed our job, the customer had wanted us to demobilize our equipment and start heading home immediately.
During the morning meeting, I highlighted the hazards we will be exposing our team to if we must commence on the road trip with a driver who has been working almost non-stop throughout last night.
My supervisor allayed my concerns. Tactfully, he explained, “If we complete our demob in time, we will go home today, but if otherwise, we will return to the camp and rest.” His counsel prevailed, and we didn’t have to travel back home with a drowsy driver behind the wheels.
My prescient premonition of disaster was averted. Or almost not as later events showed.
To his credit, the driver has been working throughout the previous night and has not rested enough. None of us, the passengers, had the guts to reprimand him. We almost ran ourselves off-the-road.
All of us were culpable in his inadvertent into-the-jungle excursion.
But it all ended well.
We arrived at our home base safely.
Key Takeaways
If you have safety concerns—personal, group, or operational—speak-up immediately. Though they may seem insignificant, small things can have major consequences.
Microsleeping in a safe out-of-work environment is harmless. However, it can lead to serious accidents, injuries, or even loss of life if you microsleep while driving, working in a sensitive area, or at work in a heavy machinery equipment.
The harmattan season in Nigeria, for instance, illustrates how specific weather patterns can cause drowsiness in drivers and workers. Be aware of these and guard against them.
Ensure you have adequate sleep and rest before embarking on any long road journey.
On extended road trips, a travel buddy can help keep you awake and safe.
Practice defensive driving and obey all traffic laws. For example, you can stop at hourly intervals to rest and be more alert.
The Christmas and New Year season is like a traveler on the last mile of a long journey.
Whether at work or driving home for the holidays, the last mile(s) of your journey is the period you need to be extra-vigilant against microsleeping.
Recognize this risk and avoid the dangers of microsleep.
Microsleep: What Is It, What Causes It, and Is It Safe?
Microsleep is a phenomenon in which a person falls asleep for 15 seconds or less. Learn about the symptoms, risks, and…www.sleepfoundation.org
Thanks for reading and wishing you a Happy New Year — 2025.
This story was originally published on Medium.
Spiritual slumber is another pack to be aware of. Very subtle but cagey. It's a personal responsibility to introspect and there lies much talked about humility. We are advised to humble ourselves..If we are humbled it means we have been sleeping!