How does our brain know when we’re almost home when we’ve been sleeping the whole car ride?
In: Biology
Agreed with the comment above that driving in the highway creates a more regular pattern of movements and sounds, which is essentially making a person sleepy. Once a car enters the city roads / town streets, the pattern breaks causing a person to become alert. It’s part of our biology since otherwise we all would be very easy prey when asleep.
Changes in patterns do wake you up. Usually the change is an alarm suddenly breaking the quiet of the night, but the reverse can work too: instead of the constant “whine” of tires on the highway at high speed, the car stops moving so fast (lower speed limits on country roads), so it’s quieter.
Your body will instinctively recognize the turns or hills or even a pattern that is familiar.
We had a dog that always rode on the floor of the car…. until we rounded a specific corner, then she was up on the dashboard!
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