Have you ever been driving down the roads of Texas or Louisiana and when you get to your destination, you can’t remember how you drove? It can be near or far as long as you follow all the directions, traffic rules and all… but then you can’t remember anything about how you got there? You know you were just driving, but suddenly you’ve lost track of most of the time. It can scare you not to remember cities or landmarks you’ve passed, but it’s actually very common.
It happens to many people and there is a name for the condition.
It’s called “highway hypnosis,” and the idea has been around almost as long as cars.
The concept dates back to 1921, with actual research conducted on the condition in 1929. Walter Miles was the man who published his work, Sleeping with Eyes Open, where he suggested that it was possible for people to actually sleep while driving, but with eyes open. Their body would keep up with the moving movements, but they fell into a sleep-like trance.
In the 1950s, the condition became a scapegoat for various traffic accidents in the United States. But it didn’t get the name “highway hypnosis” until 1963, when GW Williams coined the term.
Over the decades, research into the phenomenon has continued, with multiple theories suggesting that hypnosis from driving can lead to hypnotic dissociation. This can cause the driver to enter a different level of consciousness, where motor skills continue to allow the driver to turn, accelerate and stop while the brain enters another state of consciousness. This can lead to partial or complete amnesia for all or only part of the drive.
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