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
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.
If you are not a bit worn out after a two hour drive, you missed seeing 100 or more possible threats to your existence. This is an indication your alertness level has been too low for a very long time.
I worked with insurance adjusters for three years. All of the reports had the words “all of a sudden” or “out of nowhere” as part of the report. Insurance adjusters look at these statements as the definition of inattentive driving and very likely point the finger at the person making the statement.
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.
because you stay 4,5 hours on the same posture. You need to take a 10-minute break every hour. During this 10 minutes you should walk around. Just walk 10 minutes every hour and you will not be tired after 5 hours driving.
when you are programming, you can change posture, you can stand up, if you are not comfortable sitting so much, etc… but when you are driving, you are just sitting on the same posture all the time. That’s not good for heath and can make that process exhausting.
Get a Tesla. AutoPilot + FSD is life changing, especially if 90% of your commute is freeway. All you gotta do is hold the wheel and pay attention the car will do the rest even take you to the exit
It’s the same reason that road rage exists, you’re in a near constant state of stress essentially. Robert Sapolsky wrote about it in “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers”. Our stress state while driving is because we’re being over-analytical and running calculations about the physics of our motion. That hyper-awareness is taxing on our energy.
When a zebra is chased by a lion, they too enter that hyper-state (plus the physical drain of running), but it’s always short lived. Meanwhile, we’re usually driving in cars for lengths of time without rest.
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.
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