How do you stay awake while driving through the night?

[homedad]

my parents live about 15 hours away and I prefer to drive all night-no traffic and kids sleep most of the time. We'd leave right after work and go. I slam mountain dew and stop when I need to to run around, Also it helps to have good music or xm radio.

 

[WindyLea]

We drive through the night every time. it's just sooo much easier with the kids - they sleep the whole way there and wake up to Disney! Getting there isn't ever a problem for us, because we are really excited, too. Getting home...thats a tough trip!

Unfortunately, when we drive all night, we eat....ALOT! I keep a bag of goodies in the front and we pick throughout the 12 hour drive. It also gives us an opportunity to actually TALK...we couldn't do that if the kids were awake. We bring all of our favorite old CD's, and sing, talk and eat. If it gets tough to be awake, we play silly games...I spy and name that tune sort of thing.

We just enjoy making the trip peacefully, without "are we there yet" every 15 minutes. If you do decide to drive, have fun and be careful!

 

[njmeisje]

We drive often, and we never do this. Have you noticed all the crosses that line this particular corridor down the east coast? I'm envisioning many people fall asleep and drive their family right into a tree. It scares me.

We find it worth it to start out mid day, drive until 9-10pm, then we sleep over at a Hampton Inn, and start out early the next day. It works for us, for our kids, and for our peace of mind.

Be safe, and have fun!

 

[ChillyWilleys]

We always drive straight through from MA. We say we'll stop if we need to but 3 times in we haven't had to its about a 22 hour drive. We just drive in shifts. When one is tired we switch. We stop off at a rest area go to the bathroom, wash up and go for a few more hours with the other driving. I find gum, is actually a big help to keep you perky. The key is just don't try to stretch it. If your that tired don't. We've really lucked out though. DH does most of it. He doesn't sleep very long at night anyway, and I have plenty of time to nap during the day. We get a huge second wind when we see the Welcome to Disney signs!

 

[8 Ears]

I would also say not to do it.

However, with that said we had the most wodnerful time! We talked about nothing and everything.

Many truck drivers we know say an audio book is the worst thing, makes you sleepy.

We ate, listened to music, ate, talked, naps, ate, potty breaks. We took trail mix, pretzels, small packages of crackers; we would take small bites so we were not eating as much but it was taking a while, kwim?

Had the camera for "Oh my gosh, look at that!", hey if you are going to be a tourist play it up!

Stop at scenic over looks to stretch instead of the regular truck stops. We find it gives us more to discuss once back on the road.

Have we done it? Yes. Do we think we will drive straight through again? No.
It is really your call. As with us I am bright eyed and bushy tailed first thing in the morning. Need a nap around 5 DH can stay awake most of the night but prefers to not get up until 8 AM

Good luck and stay safe!

 

[snowwhitemom]

FIREBALLS..... oh yeah a bag full!!!!!!

 

[Mary.Poppins]

Some friends of ours did an all night drive and traded off drving every two hours...They stuck to that, too. And when you weren't driving you could either chat or sleep. What ever you needed. It worked for them.
They said they would definitely do it that way again...Drive two, off two.
I can't remember how many miles they were driving but it was an all nighter!!

 

[dislal]

DH and I drove down overnight three times then this year we went in Jan. and decided to fly. I will never drive again. What took us so long to discover flying

 

[I_Know_You2!]

To save a few dollars and a handful of time, people risk the lives of themselves and their kids. Too freakin' unbelievable. Unless a person routinely works nights there is no way it is remotely safe.

 

[dzneelvr]

DH and I used to do this every year: either to WDW (once) or Dollywood (many times). here are our tips:
1. stock up on sleep the week before. consider it part of the vacation to get a good 8-9 hours each night. then you'r fuel level is high for the drive
2. make sure the "sleeper" has a seat to stretch full out on with comfy pillow and blanket. when one is driving, the other is getting good ZZZs, not sitting in a seat with your neck rolling from one side to another
3. have an agreement that when one driver is getting dozey, you immediately look for a stop and switch drivers. don't be a martyr--too dangerous
4. in your case, the kids will be in diapers, but we always woke up DS and DD to go potty and stretch their legs when DH and I breaked. They quickly go back to sleep
5. DVDs, etc are a must. I would volunteer to drive in the "after midnight" shift because there is a national radio show out there about hauntings, aliens, etc. that I absolutely loved to listen to...
6. finally, recognize that the drivers will be in somewhat a "jet lag" mode when you reach WDW. Don't have any plans immediately. Check in, settle, and then plan for naptime 3-4 hours in a darkened room no matter what time you arrive. You'll wake up refreshed and ready to go.
Note: we found that the drive to WDW was too long for us and required not only a full day of driving but a day on either end to catch up, so seriously look for regional flights that take you right into Sanford at good rates we began using Allegient and continue to get seats in the $79-$99 range (each way). Consider it buying an additional 4 days of vacation!

 

[JimmyPicker]

We LOVE our road trips! And we do it during the night. Make sure the kids have pillows and blankies so they can be comfy and get some sleep. It's always more peaceful to drive in the night with kids because you don't have to listen to "he's touching me!" or "she's looking at me funny!"

The lack of traffic is also nice.

Make sure to stop and stretch your legs. If you stop somewhere, like McDonalds, go inside so you can stretch, don't use the drive-thru.

My husband and I turn the radio up and sing to each other, just talk about things we want to do when we get there, and that helps to keep the excitment level up.

It doesn't work for us with the driving/sleeping in shifts. We use each other to stay awake.

Also, we do stop at the Florida border. The rest stop there is a great place to stop for a couple of hours and catch a nap for a couple of hours. We still make it to WDW by late morning, and at least we've had a little sleep instead of being like walking zombies.

 

[dsnymomof4]

We've also done it a couple of times and are planning on doing it again in November. The advantage of driving through the night is that the kids sleep most of the drive down. I don't think DH and I would survive in the car if all of the kids were awake the whole time! We also take turns and drink lots of coffee and eat snacks and listen to music and talk and have a rule that if we are too tired to drive, we'll pull over into a rest stop and take a nap for an hour or two. That is usally enough to refresh us. I do agree that when we get there, we are usually really tired, so we plan on taking it easy that first day and start refreshed the next day. Good luck!