How To Deal With Insomnia When You Are A Truck Driver in New Zealand

As mentioned in the last article, sleep is extremely important to the health and safety of people, especially truck drivers who always need to be alert while driving. However, many truck drivers have found that they get insomnia regularly which is the difficulty in falling asleep normally, even when they don’t drive.

So what are the reasons?

First of all, truck drivers often have to drive in irregular time such as midnight or early morning so that they have to skip their sleep regularly, which make them get used to that habit and cause insomnia after a long time no sleep.

Second, a long distance drive with monotonous roads can cause extreme tiredness, and fatigue, which also make it hard to fall asleep when the body and mind are both depressed.

Third, stress is thought to be the main reason for insomnia of truck drivers these days. It can be caused by constant nervous, worry, or plain anxiety, which may lead to not only insomnia, but also more serious complications such as hypertension.

And finally, insomnia also may be caused by food. Caffeine, soft drinks, spicy foods, high-card and sugary foods, high protein foods, greasy foods, and alcohol, etc. are some of foods that may lead to insomnia. Truck drivers tend to drink a lot coffee or energy drinks to keep them being alert while driving; and eat fast food instead of something healthier that they don’t realize these foods are also the reasons for their insomnia.

Here are some tips for truck drivers to get rid of this issue:

• If you think your insomnia comes from stress, you should see doctors to find the reason for that stress and solve it later on.
• One of the most useful solutions is the hack: 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise that may make you sleep in a minute. This is very simple and can be done anywhere with 5 steps:

(1) Breathe out completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound.
(2) Close your mouth and breathe in quietly through your nose to a mental count of four.
(3) Hold your breath for a count of seven.
(4) Breathe out completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of eight.
(5) This is one breath. Now breathe in again and repeat the cycle three more times for a total of four breaths.

• Do not have heavy meals before sleep at least 2 hours.
• Bring stuffs that remind you of home such as pillow, or blanket.
• Make sure your sleeping place is clean and quiet.
• Don’t drink too much coffee, soft drink, or alcohol. And eat less spicy, sugary, and greasy foods.

Take care of your sleep, drivers. Good luck!

Written by Hugo Phillipps