Modern laws and regulations are improving quality of life for bus drivers. However, a lot of us are yet to understand how important sleep is to a bus driver. The optimal amount of sleep we should get is 7-9 hours. With minimum rest times being 11 hours (or 9), you’d expect every driver to have a good night’s sleep. But that is unfortunately not always the case.
MALVERSATIONS & LOOPHOLES
More often than not, when you’re done driving you’ll have to clean up (and wash) the bus. The EU law states you are obliged to keep your driver’s card inside the tachograph and switch to “duty” aka “the hammer”, this is still not practiced in most of Europe. Cleaning up a full sized bus can take up to an hour (even more if you’re driving a school trip). Occasions like these are rare in public transport where there is shift work and dedicated staff to drive, clean and maintain the bus.
The second thing other than cleaning is driving small vehicles. Most countries still do not have any logging devices in small passenger vans (8+1 seaters and similar) meaning the driver can legally continue work despite him having an early drive tomorrow. This however, is equally the company and the bus driver’s fault.
It’s no secret that there are drivers among us who are in situations where they work as much as possible. This goes as far as violating laws and risking their own and passengers lives for a larger wage.
However, this is also the only part where the company can step into making it easier for the bus drivers in order to optimize their sleep to ensure they’re in the best possible condition for the following day.
If there are agency owners, operators or even drivers reading this:
Does it pay off to save money today to risk lives and ending up in the headline of tomorrow’s newspapers?
SLEEP HABITS OF BUS DRIVERS
Sleep is incredibly important. A day or two of bad sleep won’t do much harm. Stretch this into a week and soon you’ll see the effects of chronic sleep deprivation. Mood swings and struggling with focus are terrible things to deal with as a bus driver, because your work depends on your virtues – patience, assertiveness and 24/7 focus on the road. You can’t afford to lose this just because you decided to stay up to watch “On the Buses”. But, I’ll also note that staying up late is not recommended for bus divers because it affects your sleep and takes away from being the best person you can be.
How I Optimized My Sleep as a Bus Driver
1. I Got My Sleeping Cycle In Order
No matter how unpredictable your schedule can get as a bus driver, you’ll usually wake up and go to sleep at a similar time every day. Soon enough you’ll notice a pattern when you function much better waking up at one time than the other.
This is when you’ll figure out the best sleeping cycle for you. For example, I usually wake up between 6 and 7 in the morning and fall sleep between 9 and 10 in the evening. I do so even on my days off, which is especially important to keep the cycle going. While there will be occassions where you’ll break the cycle, having one ensures you wake up energetic and ready for the next day all the time.
2. I Took Care of my Caffeine Intake
Drinking a cup of hot coffee first thing in the morning has become a staple of modern day civilization. But what if I tell you that’s among the worst times to drink it?
Hear me out. According to Dr. Andrew Huberman, you should delay your first coffee by 90-120 minutes after you wake up. While drinking coffee right after waking up will give you a boost, you’ll experience a dramatic dip in energy levels in the afternoon. Having this happen quite a few times on my drives (which usually last from morning to evening), I can testify to it being correct. The only way to “fix” this is to have another cup of coffee. Which disrupts the sleep you can’t wait to get, as it’s advised not to intake caffeine 10-12 hours before sleep.
3. I Reduced My Screen Usage Before Bed.
We are all guilty of using smartphones, televisions and laptops before we go to sleep. What we see as simple unwinding to end the day does serious harm to our sleeping cycle and here’s how:
All of these devices emit Blue Light, a part of the visible light spectrum that can influence our alertness, hormones and of course – sleep cycles. A simple way to explain it – You know the blue glow you see on people’s faces when they’re texting at night? That’s Blue Light. It’s not bad throughout the day, but it is in the evening as it keeps you awake and doesn’t allow your eyes to rest. Luckily for you, there is a way to get around this without turning off your devices.
There are various downloadable apps which decrease blue light in the evening, which will remove the strain off your eyes. Some more modern phones have a similar setting built-in. One app I recommend using is f.lux. I’m not an affiliate, but I’ve been using it for years and it does wonders.
4. I Optimised My Sleeping Environment
Whether we’re sleeping in our own bedroom, a hotel room or a bus, there is always a possibility we’ll come upon an obstacle when trying to fall asleep.
This obstacle can come in a variety of shapes and sizes but it’s most commonly noise and light. If you’re anything like me and like to go to sleep earlier (or you’re leaving early tomorrow) you may have difficulty falling asleep if there’s children running up and down the hallway or worse yet, if your room buddy is snoring or “has to listen to tv otherwise they won’t fall asleep”.
Unfortunately, telling the kids to be quiet (or shut up) rarely works in my experience. While it’s easier to have a compromise with your buddy, sometimes you’ll have to get to your own solution. If you’re a bus driver who has problems with your sleep – try using ear plugs. I’ve tried them but I really didn’t like the feel of having something up my ear.
The second option is using wireless earphones and playing some music which will help you fall asleep easier. I’ve done this quite a few times, especially when trying to fall asleep on the bus, and hands down the best app for this is brain.fm, which has a large selection of music for sleeping, relaxing, meditation and work (not affiliated).
Keep the Room Cold & Dark
What about lights? More often than not I find a random light in the room unable to be turned off, or not being able to pull the curtains & blinds completely. In this case I recommend investing in a sleeping mask. In case if you’ve tried them and didn’t enjoy, you probably just got the wrong one. Sleeping masks have advanced much further than having a tight, thin strap around your head, and they can change the way you sleep.
Last but not least, make sure the room temperature is optimal to sleep in. Experts say the optimum bedroom temperature is 18 degrees celsius (65 fahrenheit). Just think about all the times you had trouble staying asleep because it was too hot in the room.
5. If You’re In a Relationship, Make Sure You Love Each Other Before Sleep
When you’re in a long term relationship arguments are inevitable. There is however, an easy way to deal with an argument, and a right way to deal with an argument. The easy way is to run away from it and go to sleep, hoping everything will be alright by the time you wake up. I did it once. The right way is to solve things as soon as they come up, and not allow to go to sleep before the two of you have made up and are in good terms again. Remember, relationship issues don’t only give teenagers a hard time – have something unsolved and you’ll feel it all day long, and people will see it on you.
There you have it, sleep is an incredibly important part of our life, and as a Bus Driver you really have to take care about taking it to the next level as it’s a prerequisite to be good at our job. Want to learn more about bus driving? Be sure to find out the 11 things every bus driver MUST have.
Thank you for reading and see you next monday!
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