What I used to do when I worked graveyard shift and had to drive home to Boulder in the cold and snow: I'd open the windows and sunroof, turn the heat on to my feet, and listen to great music on the radio.

Oooh, it has been a long time since I did that. I used to do it in high school with my friends just because it was fun.

Man, I don't fall asleep at night unless I have not slept in over a day.

But early in the morning (I mean like 6 - 8 am or so) I have a LOT of trouble not going to sleep driving and it does not matter how much sleep I have had, when I got up, etc. Something weird about that time of the day for me.

But late at night I get energized. I used to go driving late at night all the time. I could drive some of the backroads through the hills of SW Missouri/Northern Arkansas with my eyes closed (oddly during the day I would frequently be confused as to where I was on the same roads).

I had a phase where I liked to deprive myself of sleep and I really liked to go driving in the middle of the night when I was starting to get really tired because it flung me awake and revitalized me, although I never did it once I got to the "goofy" stage of things. I guess between the "was getting tired, now getting second wind" and "so tired I start having visions" stages.

Window open. Stereo playing great music turned up loud. Really loud. Sing along to the music. Maybe whack the heating on full blast as well.

I remember when I worked in catering driving home at about 1.30am after a really long week. The drive was about 1.5 hours long - I remember leaving the restaurant and getting back to my parents' place, but that was it. I'd done the entire drive in some kind of autopilot daze. Which still slightly worries me after all these years.