Ultimately we all need to take our responsibility
Yes.
I'm feeling I should add my thoughts, after a lifetime of needing to be very careful around this problem (occasionally falling asleep in lessons as a youngster, then more often in meetings, choir practices, plays, films, and even my own lessons as a teacher a couple of times). This could amuse colleagues, but did not feel at all funny, and it wasn't a sign of boredom or lack of interest.
Obviously therefore I'm cautious with driving and with riding. As far as I'm concerned:
You can't
decide to concentrate and stay awake (however interesting the film [eg] is).
0pening car windows, loud music, talking, etc aren't likely to have much effect.
It doesn't depend reliably on how much sleep you had last night, or on what time you started - rather, on your activities for the last few days.
On longer (or any) rides, doziness signalled a need to find a way of sleeping almost immediately (rarely as difficult as might be thought). Same with driving.
But, having designated sleep stops wouldn't solve the difficulty - sleep can't be expected to happen because you want it to. Similarly for prearranged stops when driving.
As has been said, many sorts of circumstances tend to "compel" people to drive when they are unfit to. And, unlike blood alcohol content, sleepiness is not directly related to what you've just been doing, which makes legislating about it tricky.
I guess that most people are very familiar with some version of the above, because otherwise the roads would be even more dangerous than they are.
Ongoing thanks and best wishes to VB: your original post is terrifyingly shocking. And life-saving. Very much appreciated.
