sleeping

[butterfly610]

I was just wondering from the husband and wife teams, what do you find the best way to handle your sleeping schedule is? We've been doing this awhile, and it just seems like we can't get a schedule going. Pretty much what happens is we'll get a load that picks up towards the evening. The first person will usually try and go to sleep around 9 at night, but gets woke up by various things like the truck slowing down in construction, noises, etc... and then we switch around 4 am. That way the person driving at night doesn't have to stay up until early in the morning. Then that person goes to sleep, but gets woke up by arriving at the consignee and that sort of thing.
It's like you get so worn out that eventually you have a day you just have to crash. Then you end up staying up together waiting for a load sometimes, and the cycle starts over. We're finding it hard to get good quality sleep. Just wondering how you teams handle it. I say husband and wife teams, because you will relate to me, maybe, about wanting to do things together like eating meals, or talking, or such...so you don't just always sleep. Any suggestions on how to get on a better schedule, or what works for you???

 

[louixo]

Without getting into the HOS politically correctness,I`ll say that when my wife and I ran together we did 4 hour shifts as the general rule, and if the sleeping driver wanted another couple of hours, after the 4 hour shift change, and the awake driver was awake enough and could take it for another couple of hours, we covered for each other. With that schedule, even if you had to get some rest, and the other person had to take their shift and was still somewhat tired, 4 hours seemed to work as it was enough rest, and also 4 hours driving was not too much when you were tired. If we loaded in the morning, I liked to start, and if we loaded at night my wife started as she preferred night driving. With that schedule we could go around the clock for a few days, which is all we had to do most of the time, as it was rare that we were running around the clock for more than a few days straight, without some break in loads.

 

[TeamCaffee]

We do follow the HOS rules and our shifts are approximately 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning till 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon. We have never and hope to never turn down a load as we are out of hours or to tired to run. If we are running that hard we are going to ride the wave as it will quit before you know it.

Bob is a night person and I am a morning person but the kicker is both of us like to sleep when it is dark out. We have found that with this shift if we get one of those rare late night loads we are still ready to roll. The first day is always the hardest but you can get through it and the next night you are ready to get in bed early and off you go to a deep sleep. The longer we do this the easier it had become to drift off to sleep.

One thing that really helped us was getting a memory foam mattress and we no longer bounce in bed going down the road.

 

[pelicn]

We don't really have a set schedule but we rotate back and forth and balance the miles out. The first day is the hardest, and neither of us sleep well when the truck is moving, but there comes a point when you can sleep through just about anything. We have a memory foam mattress topper on our bed and that has helped a bunch.

 

[juliewray60]

>and if you're in a FL M2 ??
>
>How do you sleep in a sleeper that's mounted on nothing more
>than rubber blocks ? I deeply feel for those who struggle
>with that one and totally admire those that can. I tried and
>failed. If the cab ain't on AIR ? I ain't gonna get in.


Thank you for verifying what we are experiencing. My
girlfriend and I have been struggling with this dang
M2 for 15 months. Have tried memory foam and still
cant keep from bouncing. The jarring effect will darn
near knock your teeth out. Have complained to trucks
owner but am told the expense to convert to air is
prohibitive. Found large doses of night quill to be
the only thing that knocks me out. Others i talk to
echo the same sentiment. Shouldn't all commercial vehicles
that require sleepers also be required to install
those sleepers on air bags.

 

[greg334]

Oh come on, try sleeping in a van on a hard floor or worst yet on the bare metal floor.

Don't take this wrong.

"Shouldn't all commercial vehicles
that require sleepers also be required to install
those sleepers on air bags."

No.

If you are taking a sedative to sleep, maybe this is not the right line of work for you to be in - beside, I don't want you on the road if this is the solution to sleep because it will catch up to you and you may end up doing some damage to my truck.

Also try an air mattress, it helped someone I know who has the same problem with their old KW.

 

[juliewray60]

Thats OK greg, ive no need to
sleep on van floors. Did take
my children to school in a caravan
tho.

And please dont take this wrong,
but its get real tiring reading
your replys to every drivers situations.
Its like youve got an answer for every
single situation every single driver
has ever experienced. Like you got
this impulsive nature to impress us
with this knowledge of yours. You cant
possibly have the correct answer for
everything & you dont this time either.

As for air bags. Yes, every commercial
vehicle should be equipped with air bags.
Thats my opinion and compared to the ride
on non-equipped ones its a no brainer.

And once again, you dont know me or my
physical and mental condition. I have indeed
used night quill to relax me into a quicker
sleep. No, i do not and never have abused
any type of substances. Also, i could
actually care less that you dont want me
sharing the road with you. Theres somthing
about your character that concerns me, but
I cetainly wouldnt put my foot in mouth
and suggest we not share a road surface.
That was just rude, but thats just your MO
as we see daily with your know everything
mentality.

 

[arrbsthw]

>We do follow the HOS rules and our shifts are approximately
>2:00 or 3:00 in the morning till 2:00 or 3:00 in the
>afternoon. We have never and hope to never turn down a load
>as we are out of hours or to tired to run.

So you start driving at 2:00 am.. do u unload the loads by yourself and then go to shipper to pick up your next load while your husband is
sleeping? I am trying to figure a plan for us so my husband doesn't have
to drive all night every night.

 

[Suds43]

Doesn't NyQuill have alcohol in it?? Might be a problem if pulled for a random or involved in an accident and have to "fill the cup".

 

[x06col]

But arrb, this IS equal opportunity. Means equal pay for equal effort. Not just when you wanna or, might feel like you can.

Just wondering how many you fellas have to put up with that kinda crap.

 

[cheri1122]

NyQuill does contain alcohol - a better solution for occasional use would be Benadryl (diphenhydramine - generic costs a lot less!), Doctors often prescribe it for elderly people who can't sleep, because it's safe & effective.
Julie, your reply to Greg was pretty snippy, when you asked for suggestions, and he offered one- the air mattress sounds worth trying, to me. Maybe you could just skip his posts, if you find them irritating or whatever? I don't agree with some of his conclusions myself, but he has got his heart in the right place, as far as EO goes, and he always tries to help people.
There are posters whose stuff makes me yawn, but I just skip them, mostly.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, people - can we have a bit of peace on Earth & goodwill towards men?

 

[Moot]

> I have indeed used night quill to relax me into a quicker
sleep. No, i do not and never have abused
>any type of substances.

The DEA might not classify NyQuil as a substance, but you are abusing it if not taken for its intended purpose. NyQuil is a cold medicine designed to relieve symptoms of the common cold. It contains sedating antihistamines and/or hypnotics and a generous amount of alcohol.

NyQuil is certainly a legal medication but I'm with Suds on the fact that it could get you in trouble during a random drug test. Also it could be addictive if used as a sleep aid.

 

[greg334]

I'm tired.

And please dont take this wrong,
but its get real tiring reading
your replys to every drivers situations.
Its like youve got an answer for every
single situation every single driver
has ever experienced. Like you got
this impulsive nature to impress us
with this knowledge of yours. You cant
possibly have the correct answer for
everything & you dont this time either.

You know you may be right.

It seems that I do post every opportunity, but again who cares.

This is a forum, this is a place where people open their mind, type things and post them for others to read. The variety of things that are talked about are amazing and it opens people up to a world beyond their sometimes little imagination to things that they would never ever think that existed. This is not the NY times and there is an editor looking for mistakes and falsehoods and limiting speech to the point to not to offend anyone person.

Maybe it is my nature coming from a background that I had to look for stupid mistakes and dumb attitudes and got paid to fix them or better yet maybe I see an industry that I have been trying to be profession in by prompting safety over everything else but I find a truly backward mentality with people crying about things that they say they can’t control but are not getting off their lazy a**es to change those things – more of a defeatist attitude right our of the gate to me.

As for air bags. Yes, every commercial
vehicle should be equipped with air bags.
Thats my opinion and compared to the ride
on non-equipped ones its a no brainer.

Well if you can’t get air bags, I offered a legitimate suggestion, try an air mattress – it seems to help others. The other thing I also think may help is looking into a different pillow. I found a water pillow and ordered it from Japan. I haven't gotten it yet but I have a serious neck problem and can't seem to find anything to help with it.

And once again, you dont know me or my
physical and mental condition. I have indeed
used night quill to relax me into a quicker
sleep. No, i do not and never have abused
any type of substances. Also, i could
actually care less that you dont want me
sharing the road with you. Theres somthing
about your character that concerns me, but
I cetainly wouldnt put my foot in mouth
and suggest we not share a road surface.
That was just rude, but thats just your MO
as we see daily with your know everything
mentality.

Honestly I got to tell you, the use of Nyquil is one of those things that do catch up to you if you use it long term and is one that is open to abuse – just go ask AA. The last time I looked the top ingredient outside of the actual drugs added to it is alcohol, and the drugs used are there to make you FEEL better, not make you well.

If you want to have a discussion on how over the counter cold medicines effect people, I still have my product manuals somewhere in this mess of an office from my former employer who makes this stuff, so you can come up with some facts to support your position.

Yes it is true I don’t know you but it don’t matter what you can say to justify the use of a sleep aid that slows responses down and interacts with others drugs that are more common in this industry and prescribed to patients by doctors who don’t do their job but listen to drug reps.

Look I am not trying to impress the masses here but to provide some sort of path for others to follow, it may not be correct to many, it may be something that leads to other questions but at least I’m trying to post things that are helpful or correct what I feel is wrong. If you don’t appreciate this, well then you don’t but it won’t stop me from posting information that I feel may help one or two out there.

I will try to simplify this, what my concern is this; many people look to forums for solutions and may read that Nyquil will work for you without thinking that it may impact them differently. So mister/miss truck driver (could be a van driver) will get a few bottles of Nyquil and use it to sleep but then go through a week where really push themselves like they will pull all nighter and having their sleep cycles screwed up. They feel that they need to sleep and take the stuff to get to the point they fall asleep (there is something called over tired where you can’t sleep) but then get called for a load and take the load and start moving toward the load. There is THE problem because they are not planning out their sleep or have been up for so long that they can’t figure out what is really going on but now became dependent on the Nyquil to sleep. Their reaction time is slowed and they may fall asleep if the stuff is not out of their system. They are in automatic mode and just go through the motions of doing the work. You can’t tell me otherwise that this is a safe and effective method of sleeping while you are responsible for lives around you when you are controlling a 25K plus vehicle. Or am I wrong?

As for my education on sleep, I have had plenty from my former profession. As part of that profession, I trained people to stay up for 24 to 48 hours at a time for disaster recovery and there is one thing we talked about in the class and that is using stimulants and sleep aids to deal with the ups and downs of sleep. They were all professionals with the same desire to safely do their jobs and to accomplish one thing – to keep systems up and running so people can work. All of that is highly stressful, more stressful than what we go through, we face different dangers on the road. On the opposite end of things, I have to deal with unprofessional attitudes in this industry (I am talking about trucking not expediting), people who just barely know how to drive, people who should know more about their truck than where the horn is and people who think they are Gods behind the wheel of a truck. My safety and the safety of others depends on the person who is behind the wheel of a truck and if they are drunk, on drugs or abusing something, I don’t want them on the road and it was not in any way rude for me to say something I have said before – safety first as far as I am concern.

But also I got to add this, if you need help to get to sleep, I would recommend you go see a real sleep specialist to find out why, not a GP but someone who knows what they are talking about – remember GPs don’t have all the answers.

Sleep deprivation is a serious issue and so are the other sleep disorders that prevent people from getting a truly rested sleep. You can’t argue with that because the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has already recognized that truck drivers are at risk and they above all don’t get enough rested sleep which has more to do with habits then the sleeper.

Oh one last thing, don’t take things so personal like I do.

You may have a lot more to offer and post things that help others out even if you beat up on me, as long as you help – that’s what we are here for, right?

 

[pelicn]

RE: I'm tired.

Greg,
You mentioned ordering a water pillow... I have one and LOVE it! Call it DUH, but something that I didn't think about was the weight of the water. When you try to reposition it in the bed, that dang thing is HEAVY! I had it out on the road with us, but on the bumpy roads, I couldn't stand the sound of the water sloshing, so I left it home. It's a treat for me when we're there.

Oh yeah, we tried the air mattress route, and it didn't work nearly as well as the memory foam for us.

 

[ATeam]

RE: I'm tired.

The kind of truck you are driving can make a huge difference in the kind of sleep you get when your codriver is driving down the road. Money spent on to improve the ride is worth every penny. The better teams can sleep in a moving truck, the less time they will have to give up to sleep in a non-moving truck.

We drove lift-axle and tandem-axle Freightliners and tandem-axle when we drove fleet owner trucks. The tandem-axle trucks provided a much smoother ride and also much better sleep when the trucks were moving.

We drove a Western Star that rode terrible and our sleep suffered because of it. At our request, the fleet owner had an aditional set of air bags installed under the sleeper, which improved the ride. Our sleep improved too.

Now, we are in a tandem-axle Volvo straight truck and the sleeper has five air bags under it and a Select Comfort Sleep Number mattress. We have never slept better in a truck, and that has enhanced our ability to safely string together one run after another.

Others above have also said that air bags and better mattresses improve sleep quality. If Diane and I were running with a fleet owner that was unwilling to provide anything other than a rough-riding truck and a standard mattress, that would be reason enough for us to look for another fleet owner. You are going to get pretty much the same deal from any ruputable fleet owner. You might as well get into a truck that makes it easier to sleep while your codriver drives.

Doing so is the right move for comfort, productivity and safety reasons.

 

[Moot]

RE: I'm tired.

Pelicn, does your water pillow have a special insulated pillow case? I made a water pillow out of a 5 gallon bulk milk bladder and it was always cold.

 

[Dreamer]

RE: I'm tired.

It never fails to amaze me how people come to this website seeking answers, or sharing their knowledge... and then are upset because other people gave THEIR answers.... isn't that what a forum is for?

If you don't like someone's answers....SKIP THEIR POSTS!!!

I personally appreciate Greg's posts, and all of you who take the time to share your knowledge and experience!

Merry Christmas folks!



Dreamer
Forums Administrator


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[pelicn]

RE: I'm tired.

Moot,
The pillow I have isn't cold because it's surrounded by pillow batting. By the way, I bought it from the chiropractor at the TA in Cartersville, GA

 

[Moot]

RE: I'm tired.

Thanks pelicn I will have to look into one.

 

[buckeyewildman]

RE: I'm tired.

well i guess i will give my 2 cents worse although i have always driven solo i have friends husband and wife who team drive they split it up he drives or is on duty 3PM 3AM she from 3AM-3PM it seems to work well for them of course they have a regular route Columbus Ohio to California every week