I can understand that you dont have to make physical effort to feel tired, because I work as a computer programmer and I feel tired after making mental effort, but this effort seems way bigger than the one required to drive, yet, after 4,5 hours of driving I feel way more exhausted than after 8,10 hours of coding.
In: Biology
There are two things I’ve found that make people tired while driving.
1. The constant vibrations of the vehicle have a similar effect to rocking a baby. Smoother roads, better shocks, and engines with less vibration on the car (most new cars heave innovated in this area) can improve this.
2. When it’s sunny out, I have a hard time staying alert and get tired while driving. Sun glasses help with this. So I think it’s the consistent squinting since I’m more sensitive to light then most people (perks of red hair and blue eyes). For some people it’s the heat as it takes energy to keep our body cool. So for others, turning on air conditioning and drinking water is sufficient.
Nevertheless, none of this really helped during the heat wave of nineteen ninety eight when the Undertaker threw Mankind off hell and a cell sixteen feet into the announcers table.
Very different effects on different people. It all depends on how comfortable and confident you are driving. My wife drives shoulders clenched in mild panic at all times and I enjoy weaving through seas of traffic. She could make 4 hours before needing to stop at a gas station to cry softly into bad coffee and I can drive 24h+ in traffic, but on lonely roads I could only make 10-12 hours before needing a nap.
My confidence comes from experience, I’ve spent the last 15 years needing to part the taillight sea for work in a high traffic area and at some point you just know where all the cars around you are, who is likely to do what, and if you have the lane on either side or not.
Key is always knowing if you have the lane. My wife clearly has no idea if she can change lanes untill after she should have changed lanes.
Driving is incredibly complex. Your brain is doing a lot of work to coordinate position, speed, actions of others, obstacles, road conditions, as well as the placement and movement of all 4 limbs, among a plethora of other things. Your eyes are also open more, you blink less, so they can get dry.
So your mind is working now, so gets tired. And your eyes are getting dry, making them tired also.
(The sheer complexity of driving is why you should never allow yourself or others to be distracted while driving. Put that phone away.)
In addition to the mental aspects brought up by other commentors, your body makes tons of corrections to keep yourself sitting upright and centered against the forces of acceleration, braking, and turning. A few minutes of this is nothing, but spread over a period of hours can be draining.
As a fellow computer programmer, when I code, even when very focused, I set my own pace, I resolve problems in the order I see fit, I can pause a few seconds to breathe in when looking at something hairy. I’m really driving the effort.
When I drive a car however, things happen to me constantly that I have to immediately react to whether I’m ready or not, I must deal with the hairy bits as they come without being able to pause beforehand, and I need to be constantly on high alert as I don’t know what and when the things will happen to react to. The road and context are driving the effort despite me.
Also, the different stakes implies different stress. If I mess up really badly for 30 straight seconds when coding, I can just hit “Undo” a bunch and start over, no harm no foul. If I mess up really badly for 30 seconds when driving, I could be, ya know, killing my entire family in the car. No pressure.
Source: none, this is all subjective.
Because of the high risk potential, you must concentrate on a physically sedentary and mentally underchallenging and monotonous activity.
Same reason, albeit less so, that you get tired after riding a horse, combined with the reason you’re tired after a plane trip.
The former is because you’re constantly adjusting your balance. The latter is because you’re stuck in that one sitting position for hours. Meanwhile, programming you probably get out of the chair to take a piss or grab a drink or just adjust your chair a bunch.
For me, it’s because I have to be attentive. Driving requires your constant attention and constant concentration.
So to combat it, I usually double the speed limit. I get home in half the time, I’m too busy paying attention to holes in traffic to be on my phone, and the fear of crashing keeps the adrenaline going.
So there are a few factors affecting your tiredness.
1. Actively driving. This is the effort it takes to drive, navigate, check your speed, and basically manage yourself on the road.
2. Sub-conscious driving. When driving, you’re doing 100s of small adjustments every minute. Checking the speed of other cars and managing your car against them. Slowing down a tiny bit to keep the car under the speed limit, maintaining spacial awareness by checking the mirrors and other traffic.
3. Physical fatigue. So part of this is the physical effort used to move your arms on the wheel and pedals. But also the effort your body goes through to keep you seated comfortably. Your body is working constantly to hold you in your seat, check your leg is comfortable etc.
4. Finally, and this is for passengers as well as drivers. Its “NVH” or noise, vibration and harshness. Its things like tire noise, how much lurching you do in motion vs smooth driving, and how isolated you feel from the rest of the world.
All of these combine to make driving pretty tiring. Good luck!
It’s the monotonous motion. Mesmerizing lines,lights, trees, cars trucks vans semis.
The light of the sun flashing through the trees creating a strobe light effect.
The human body isn’t made to sit for long periods.
I like driving in my new truck or my wife’s van but I hate sitting shotgun. The seat sits lower on both vehicles. And me being tall makes my legs hurt in such a way.
That’s why I hate long driving. I love maps, direction roads and map reading without using gps
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