Highway Hypnosis – The Amnesia of Missing Your Exit or Forgetting How You Got There

Have you driven to your destination and arrived without the ability to remember how you got
there, or to find that you missed your exit?

This most often occurs while listening to music or having a conversation with someone
while driving, and is known as Highway Hypnosis.

Highway Hypnosis is an altered mental state in which a person drives for great distances
responding to external events safely, while missing an exit or having no recollection of how
they arrived at their destination. The brain cannot multi-task while driving. The back of our
brain focuses our attention on what we see, while the front half of the brain, responsible for
cognition, functions to make decisions and driving maneuvers. The two together compete
by multitasking, which can impair “thinking space”.

What does this mean? For some, listening to music or having a conversation while
driving can be extremely distracting, and is often overlooked as a safety hazard.

Music Distracts Driving by Competing for Cognitive and Decision Making Space in the Brain

How well do you know yourself and if music or an ongoing conversation is distracting or
helpful? Cognitive distractions are often unrecognized, taking your mind off driving, and instead,
tasking it to concentrate on the music or conversation.

While music or a conversation can help pass the drive time, or may be used in an
attempt to stay alert, certain circumstances can lead to difficulty concentrating,
affecting critical thinking and reaction times. For many, listening to music or having a
conversation while driving is not the answer, whereas quiet time is.

The following are recommendations when listening to music or having conversations while
driving:

1. Turn the music volume down. It’s especially important for you to remain alert for changes
   in your truck’s performance and from hearing what’s happening around you. Loud music
   over 95 decibels has been shown to slow reaction times by as much as 20%.
   
2. Choose soft, slower-paced tracks, without lyrics. Drivers make more mistakes when
   listening to music with fast tempos because it requires them to process more information.
   The brain can’t compete with an overload of information.
   
3. If you are having a hands-free conversation with a passenger or by phone, but it’s
   causing you to lose your focus, cease the conversation.
   
4. Heavy traffic, construction zones, rain, or inclement weather also qualify as distractions. It
   is particularly recommended during these situations to refrain from listening to music and
   cease conversations.