Highway Hypnosis: What is it and what does it tell us about ourselves?

Automaticity is a Gift

Although it may seem a bit scary to think about driving or doing other such things automatically, the reality is we do lots of things in our life automatically, mostly things we have significant experience and practice with. We ride our bikes without thinking about maintaining balance, we talk to a friend while walking, we read words fluidly or speak without planning each word ahead. The more we relegate routine actions to automatic behavior, the more we free our awareness up to pay attention to things that are more novel or complex. It is a distinct advantage evolutionarily to expand the number of things we can do on automatic if we are to continue to evolve higher and higher order capacities. It’s an important point, of course, that one can be on automatic for as long as conditions remain stable. In terms of highway hypnosis, you can be assured that as soon as your attention is needed because the car in front of you hit the brakes or an animal ran in front of your car, your moments of reverie will be over and you’ll respond readily. Keep in mind the distinction between driving on automatic and driving when fatigued.

How to avoid driving when drowsy

Here are 8 tips that can help you avoid drowsy driving:

• Get at least 7-9 hours of sleep every night.

• Take a break every 90 minutes or when tired or and consider switching drivers if you're in the car with someone else who can drive.

• Drink coffee or other caffeinated drinks. Caffeine blocks receptors in your brain from uptaking a sleep chemical called Adenosine (4), helping keep you awake and alert. Besides, if you drink more, well, there’s a good chance you’ll need to take a break from driving for another automatic function…

• Take a different route. Paying less attention is more common when you're driving routes that you often take, so by taking a different route home it will force encourage you to be more aware of the new unfamiliar roads, cars and signs.

• Drive during the day when possible. Driving at night can be a lot more monotonous and therefore easier for your brain to slip into autopilot. Driving in the day will likely keep you awake and more aware interesting surroundings.

• Keep it cool. You're more awake and alert if the air inside the car is cooler, so keep the aircon on during the summer and try not to use too much of the heater during winter.

• Sit up straight. Good posture can help keep you more alert and prevent you from drifting off.

• Don't use cruise control. Cruise control can make it a lot more comfortable to drive but it can also give you more of an excuse to drift off and not focus on driving.

What is hypnosis?

Simply put, hypnosis is a highly focused, absorbed state of attention where you become more receptive to new ideas and perspectives. Hypnosis is known as an amplified learning state and can help you learn skills both consciously and unconsciously (automatically) more easily. Given how much of improving your health and well-being is based on learning new skills and perspectives, the focus and comfort of hypnosis to facilitate such learning is an especially helpful tool. The merits of hypnosis to enhance treatments for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and many other conditions is well documented in the scientific literature. The hypnosis sessions we provide at Mindset have great potential to be helpful to you.