Posted on 4/30/2021
Photo by MK Hamilton on Unsplash The experience known as highway hypnosis (or white line fever) causes many summer crashes, particularly late at night. Overextended travelers may find themselves falling asleep at the wheel with many miles to go. It might be their fault for not preparing for a long trip, but in truth, highway hypnosis happens about twenty minutes going into a long drive. Sleepiness can be an issue, but the more significant problem is that we built our highway system as a uniformly monotonous landscape. Seeing the same turnpike and off-ramp over and over again makes our oculomotor (eye-to-brain) system stagnant. Just like seeing a pocket watch tick back and forth and being hypnotized, the landsc ... read more