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Comment by IgorPartola | Hacker News Reader

Here's a trick I've been using: if you are driving and start feeling tired, hold your breath. Your brain will go into a bit of a panic mode: "Where's all the O2?!", and you will feel more awake for a short period of time. Do note, that this is a great trick to get you to the rest area 3 miles down the road, not a good way to drive all night long.

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If you're alone in the car, try screaming. It creates an adrenaline rush.

But I MUST add that none of these tricks will last for more than a couple of minutes, and after you do them a couple of times, they stop working. Sleepy drivers start "microsleeping", which means they fall asleep for a second or so then wake up without being aware that they did it. The microsleeps gradually get longer until you start noticing---or you die or kill someone else.

Don't take sleepiness on the road lightly. You can use the screaming to get yourself safely to a parking place. If you are this sleepy, pull into a busy parking lot and go right to sleep for 15 minutes (set an alarm). You're unlikely to be bothered by anyone in the first 15 minutes in a very busy, public location. They'll assume you're waiting for someone.

Very true. To add to this - prefer busier, well-lighted places to quieter, darker places to stop and sleep.

That's better than my old "increasingly harder slaps to the face" trick.

The trick probably works, but the body doesn't actually have a "low-O2" detector, but rather a "high-CO2" detector. Most of the time, they are equivalent; however, if you have e.g. CO poisoning (thus, no CO2 buildup), you don't feel suffocating even though you're out of oxygen.

Yawning is designed to wake you up. Yawn's apparently provide a boost of O2. We yawn when we're tired because we're trying to stay awake/alert and yawning enables that; if someone yawns when you're talking then they're actually trying to concentrate - that's a good thing.

I'm pretty good at fighting the panic response when holding my breath - lots of underwater swimming bravado as a child - at what point do you breath?!? Leave it too long and you'll just pass out at the wheel. I'd imagine for me this would be too distracting and make me more likely to crash.

A research contender though.

I imagine, just like everything else, it doesn't work the same way for everyone. I have tried several techniques of this personally, including filling my lungs and holding my breath, and exhaling completely and holding my breath. The latter works better for me. I have no special training but I can hold my breath for about a minute if my lungs are full. The problem there seems to be that it gets me even sleepier. However, if I exhale and hold my breath it only takes about 10-20 seconds and the response is very immediate and sharp.

I should also note that I don't tend to pass out. Last time I came close to passing out, I was in a state where most people would have (blood pressure at 70/40). Perhaps this trick is not for you if you pass out easily.

No evidence for the O2 boost for yawning. Actually, we don't really know what yawning is good for.

When I mentioned it I knew I really should have looked for a citation first, it's something I heard on BBC Radio 4 (!), which is usually a good source for science/mathematics based information ... but you got me. The article I heard was primarily on empathetic aspects of yawning.

Initially I was going to write "an O2 boost to the brain" but thinking about it I couldn't readily create a mechanism for that to happen - I'm terrible at human biology mind you - and so I reduced the claim in case I'd miss heard. Presumably to boost oxygen to the brain you'd need to increase blood flow (vasodilation or heart-rate) or increase oxygenation of the blood.

Taking a very quick look at scholar.google.com there are citations supporting humans yawning when they have low blood oxygen; there's also papers saying that hypoxic patients increase blood oxygen levels through deep breathing. A yawn is like a single deep breath ... so perhaps?? But I'm not in a position to look further.

People also yawn when they see other people (or even animals or pictures) yawn. It's complicated.

It's meant to help you catch bugs and thus acquire protein.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mq7UKQ3Jm4&t=45m

(Yes, it's humor, but BAHfest is great at satirizing wild ass guesses that have become mistaken for legitimate hypotheses when we really don't have the evidence to say we know.)

I have an additional hypothesis for why holding your breath might give you more cognitive energy for a period of time. It could be that the stomach compression and neck muscle tension that often accompanies holding your breath is raising the blood pressure in the head area and thereby increasing blood perfusion.

Neat, I hadn't heard of that one. Both of the tricks for staying awake and alert while driving that I have used involve discomfort: - If it's cold outside, roll down your window. - Find a radio station playing music you dislike and crank it up.

15 Minutes sleep is a good one. Also, if you are alone, singing along with music.

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