Sigh. I don’t do that anymore, but when I was in the Navy, I thought I could do nearly anything.
I got up at 10 AM, worked a full night shift at work, jumped in my car the next morning and drove straight through on leave from Jacksonville, FL to Boston, MA, about a 24 hour journey. When I got home, I immediately dropped my stuff off at home, visited with as many friends as I could, picked up a gal I had arranged a date with, and drove up to Hampton Beach in New Hampshire with her for dinner and beach activities.
Around midnight (about 50 hours since I woke up in Florida) as I was driving my date home on 495 South in Massachusetts, I fell fast asleep.
No warning, just fell fast asleep (she was sleeping in the passenger seat of my MG Midget already). Next thing I knew, my head was bumping the inside of the convertible top of the MG. We were transversing the grass median of the highway diagonally at about 50 mph.
I was so damn lucky it was relatively flat and clear. No rocks or trees. I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been. I could have killed that girl, not to mention myself.
What amazed me was how quickly my brain just turned off.
I used to work nights and did a few of those multiple-day-no-sleep trips. One time I was fighting the sleep really hard. I didn’t think I was going to make it home. Finally, I spotted my town. I was so relieved I fell right asleep. My head hit the seat back hard enough that it woke me up again. I got a little smarter after that.