I realized I just should have not have driven home, and feel bad about the whole event so I wanted to come on here and talk about it, and ask some questions / make some observations for other drivers.

Here was my day...5 hours of sleep last night (usually need 7-8 to feel pretty good like most people) woke up at 9am and hit the beach by 11am...Stayed on the beach until about 4:30pm and got baked in the sun. Didn't really drink much water most of the day but tried to during the end. Got home around 6pm by the time we hit traffic, I wasn't driving...had a big unhealthy dinner, then watched the UFC fights from 8pm-1:45am then I was dropped off to where my car was (at someone's house I didn't really know) and then drove home from there...About a 15-20 minute drive on local roads. The whole drive was like a challenge, I wasn't swerving or anything, but everything just seemed harder to do. I felt very tired / dazed / confused. Probably a mixture of sun/lack of sleep/dehydration but I literally felt like I was drunk driving home. So I'm not sure if driving very tired, is EQUAL to or WORSE then driving drunk. Again, I'm sorry for hitting the roads in this condition, but I really though I would be fine because I was pretty awake at the bar we were watching the fights at. I also just wanted to get home. Anyways, I'm hope safe, car is home safe, and I didn't injure/hurt any innocent people.

Secondly now that I'm home and let you guys know how dangerous it is to drive very tired, I wanted to ask if its possible I did any damage to the G. I wasn't flooring it or anything, but I felt like I was driving it very slow...well not slow in terms of speed but just sluggish. Accelerating very slow, and just kinda being sloppy in terms of acceleration pressure. Sometimes very soft, sometimes a little harder. I also remember when parking the car I put it in N then put the e-brake on and then SLAMMED it into park hard. Then I was like wtf am I doing, got out of the car...locked it twice by accident and walking inside. Literally felt drunk. Annoyed at myself for driving like that, and now wondering if I hurt the car at all. I just remember driving really funky. I remember turning out of the neighborhood barely giving the car any gas.

Thanks.

 

I doubt that you did anything to the car. Most likely it was you that was out of sync.

The worst thing that has happened to me due to being tired was literally closing my eyes while driving. It started as long blinks, then straight up, eyes closed and passing freeway exits. When I realized this, I pulled over at the nearest McD's and grabbed a coffee, washed my face, and wised up.

 

I didn't fall asleep at all or close my eyes, I was 100% awake...but just seemed like the whole car ride was a space out. Everything seemed like it was slow motion. Almost to the point where I don't even remember the whole trip. Pretty damn scary. I'm going to go to sleep in a second, but I just feel like an idiot right now.

 

Between us though, you watched a UFC match at a bar without having a few beers?

 

After reading your post I think you must be drunk for writting it. Sounds like you need to go to church today and hit the confessional to really get this off your chest and be right with the lord.

 

I'm an active duty U.S. Navy Clinical Psychologist. I can tell you this, there is a significant amount of professional literature that suggests being overly tired, whether via sleep deprivation or other means, can lead to significant cognitive processing delays equal to that of being inebriated. To top that off, dehydration, and what you potentially ate that evening, can can also influence our ability to process information.

With that said, I am happy to hear you made it home ok. My suggestion next time is to hydrate more often and adjust your schedule to be safely home if you have had a "hard day" out. If you feel you cannot make it home, use the same strategies you would use if you had been drinking, namely call someone.

 

+1 ^^

I'm sure most of us have been there at one time or another. I played in a band for several years during my 20s and on many occasions drove home -- sometimes a 3-4 hour drive -- after packing up from a night gig. I was in Penn. at the time; the bars close at 2am and it would be closer to 3:30 by the time we got out of there.

I didn't drink at the time so I was always the van driver after the shows. Usually the worst time was when the sun started coming back up and I'd literally feel drunk from fatigue like you said. After pushing it too far like that (nothing bad happened, but still) we wised up a bit and learned it wasn't worth it. Plenty of times we'd just go as far as we could and stop for the night in a rest area. Of course, that's much easier to do in a conversion van with a few friends than by yourself in a mid-sized sedan.

Nevertheless it sounds like you aren't going to do that again, so just treat it as a learning experience. I'm sure the car is fine.