Highway hypnosis

"If one has driven a car over many years, as I have, nearly all reactions have become automatic. One does not think about what to do.” – John Steinbeck, from “Travels with Charley: In Search of America.”

For many of us, driving a vehicle has become so automatic that we can fall into a trance-like state known as highway hypnosis and forget how we got to our destination or at least parts of it.

The idea that motorists can literally fall asleep with their eyes open and continue to steer was first described in a 1929 study.

In 1963, Griffith W. Williams, PhD, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University, coined the term “highway hypnosis” to describe motorists successfully performing complex driving behavior while under a form of “naturally occurring hypnosis.”

A few years earlier, Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck drove across the country and back with a finicky French poodle named Charley. Early in a 1962 book about those travels, Steinbeck describes what all motorists have experienced on long road trips – “a large area of the subconscious mind is left free for thinking.”

Highway hypnosis is an example of automaticity, or the ability to do things without thinking about them, such as riding a bike or working on an assembly line.

“It’s when we get lost in our thoughts or have something weighing on our minds that we go on autopilot,” Karen Sandbach, PhD, a neuropsychologist with Baptist Behavioral Health. “Noticing that we are distracted is step one. Step two is bringing your mind back to the present moment and the task at hand.”

While you can't eliminate daydream driving, the six tips below are ways to regulate your attention, which is the main goal of mindful driving.

• Listen to music with 100 to 175 beats per minute to increase alertness.
• Check your side and rear-view mirrors often to keep your eyes moving.
• Read every road sign you come across, even mile markers
• Eat healthy treats while driving to avoid going into a food coma.
• Vary how often and how long you use cruise control.
• Get some shut-eye. When you sleep better, you are more alert on the road.