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* Transport Accident Commission ([=TAC=]), a Victoria, Australia-based organization devoted to teaching about safe driving, have quite a few ads about the dangerous of this:
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* Transport Accident Commission Advertising/TransportAccidentCommission ([=TAC=]), a Victoria, Australia-based organization devoted to teaching about safe driving, have quite a few ads about the dangerous of this:
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* In ''Film/HighwayToHell'', Charlie falling asleep while driving sets the Hellcop on their trail, kickstarting Rachel's kidnapping.
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* ''LightNovel/GoldenTime'': During the BeackEpisode, Banri, Koko, and their friends go home after feeling tired from their vacation. However, Koko falls asleep at the wheel. And before the car swerves out of control, Banri wakes up and hit the brakes, causing the car to hit the guard rail. However, Chinami gets a bloody lip, and the car's bumper gets dented much to Koko's horror.
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* ''Literaturel/GoldenTime'': During the BeachEpisode, Banri, Koko, and their friends go home after feeling tired from their vacation. However, Koko falls asleep at the wheel. And before the car swerves out of control, Banri wakes up and hit the brakes, causing the car to hit the guard rail. However, Chinami gets a bloody lip, and the car's bumper gets dented much to Koko's horror.
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* ''LightNovel/GoldenTime'': During the BeackEpisode, Banri, Koko, and their friends go home after feeling tired from their vacation. However, Koko falls asleep at the wheel. And before the car swerves out of control, Banri wakes up and hit the brakes, causing the car to hit the guard rail. However, Chinami gets a bloody lip, and the car's bumper gets dented much to Koko's horror.
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purged general RL example
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* Long-haul truckers are only supposed to drive a certain number of hours a day (which they often ignore), pilots are supposed to have a mandatory rest period and cannot fly any more after a certain number of hours flown, and even military personnel traveling from one base to another are advised not to drive more than 500 miles in a day.
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* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim adds a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she ends up dozing off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and the papers in her car scattered in the breeze.
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* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim adds takes on a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she ends up dozing off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and the papers in her car scattered in the breeze.
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* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim adds a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she ends up dozing off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and all the papers in her briefcase flying around.
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* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim adds a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she ends up dozing off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and all the papers in her briefcase flying around.car scattered in the breeze.
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* After spending most of the previous night talking by telephone and messaging with a woman he had met online, Gary Hart fell asleep on the M62 motorway near Selby, Yorkshire, England, while driving a Land Rover towing a trailer holding another car. The vehicle travelled down an embankment on to the main rail line between Edinburgh and London. Hart escaped from the car and while he was on the phone to the emergency services, an express passenger train travelling from Newcastle to London struck the Land Rover and was derailed into the path of a freight train travelling in the other direction. Both drivers, two train crew and six passengers on board the express train, as well as one of the two drivers of the freight train, were killed. 52 passengers were seriously injured. Hart received a five-year prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.
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* After spending most of the previous night talking by telephone and messaging with a woman he had met online, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selby_rail_crash Gary Hart fell asleep on the M62 motorway near Selby, Yorkshire, England, while driving a Land Rover towing a trailer holding another car. car.]] The vehicle travelled down an embankment on to the main rail line between Edinburgh and London. Hart escaped from the car and while he was on the phone to the emergency services, an express passenger train travelling from Newcastle to London struck the Land Rover and was derailed into the path of a freight train travelling in the other direction. Both drivers, two train crew and six passengers on board the express train, as well as one of the two drivers of the freight train, were killed. 52 passengers were seriously injured. Hart received a five-year prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.
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* Brent Hershman, a cameraman for the film ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'', was killed this way after working a 19-hour work day on the set. In addition to the numerous lawsuits his death resulted in, the industry itself soon had an overall regarding work hour limitations for cast and crew.
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-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel", Music/BarenakedLadies
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* Music/BarenakedLadies song "The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" is from the perspective of a man who, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title of the song suggests]], fell asleep driving and got in a serious car accident.
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* Music/BarenakedLadies Music/BarenakedLadies' song "The "Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" is from the perspective of a man who, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title of the song suggests]], fell asleep driving and got in a serious car accident.
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* ''Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold'': The Thompson twins, tired from wandering in the desert, fall asleep at the wheel of their jeep and end up crashing the car in a city.
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* ''Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold'': The Thompson twins, tired from wandering in the desert, fall asleep at the wheel of their jeep jeep, which wanders into a city and end up crashing the car in [[CarMeetsHouse crashes into a city.mosque]] before they realize it.
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[[folder:Comic books]]
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[[folder:Comic books]]Books]]
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* ''Animation/KikoRiki'': In "Flying in a Dream and in Reality", Pin helps Barry spray chemicals on his wheat fields. Unfortunately, he got distracted by "Captain Colobo" comics and didn't get enough sleep the night prior. What follows is a bunch of shenanigans caused by Pin falling asleep on the plane, all PlayedForLaughs. He's only awaken thanks to accidentally picking up Carlin and having him to make Pin wake up. Both safely escape the plane just a few seconds before it crashes, though Pin still ends up suffering heavy injuries.
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* ''Animation/KikoRiki'': In "Flying "[[Recap/KikoRikiEp21FlyingInADreamAndInReality Flying in a Dream and in Reality", Reality]]", Pin helps Barry spray chemicals on his wheat fields. Unfortunately, he got distracted by "Captain Colobo" comics and didn't get enough sleep the night prior. What follows is a bunch of shenanigans caused by Pin falling asleep on the plane, all PlayedForLaughs. He's He only awaken thanks to wakes up after accidentally picking up Carlin and having him to make yell for Pin wake up.to stop sleeping. Both safely escape the plane just a few seconds before it crashes, though Pin still ends up suffering heavy injuries.
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we don't need three separate "Comedy" folders with only one example in each
* A joke attributed to Creator/JackHandey: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror like his passengers."
* Comedian Creator/RichardPryor mentions in his act that a big reason he gave up doing drugs is that he got tired of waking up in his car, doing 90 mph (145 kph).
* Comedian Creator/RichardPryor mentions in his act that a big reason he gave up doing drugs is that he got tired of waking up in his car, doing 90 mph (145 kph).
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[[folder:Jokes]]
* A classic joke: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandpa; not screaming in terror, like the passengers in the car he was driving."
[[/folder]]
* A classic joke: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandpa; not screaming in terror, like the passengers in the car he was driving."
[[/folder]]
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[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Comedian Richard Pryor mentions in his act that a big reason he gave up doing drugs is that he got tired of waking up in his car, doing 90 mph (145 kph).
[[/folder]]
* Comedian Richard Pryor mentions in his act that a big reason he gave up doing drugs is that he got tired of waking up in his car, doing 90 mph (145 kph).
[[/folder]]
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!!Examples
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[[folder:Comic books]]
* ''Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold'': The Thompson twins, tired from wandering in the desert, fall asleep at the wheel of their jeep and end up crashing the car in a city.
[[/folder]]
* ''Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold'': The Thompson twins, tired from wandering in the desert, fall asleep at the wheel of their jeep and end up crashing the car in a city.
[[/folder]]
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* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaInTheWanNyanSpacetimeOdyssey'' have a {{prequel}} OVA set before the events of the movie, revolving around new character Hachi's childhood. As a kid Hachi is told by his adoptive mother to wear his lucky ''[[GoodLuckCharm kendama]]'' necklace everywhere he goes, which he dismisses as superstitious nonsense. All that changes when the ''kendama'' starts moving on it's own, causing Hachi to suddenly stop while crossing a busy intersection during a red light - which saves his life when a truck driven by a sleepy driver suddenly crashes into a kerb that Hachi and friends ''would've'' been standing on if he hadn't stopped.
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* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The episode "Friends of Peter G." has Peter attempting to drive home from AA while completely wasted. When Carl asks if he's actually okay to do so, Peter replies that he should be fine if he [[TooDumbToLive cranks up the heat and blasts the lullaby channel on his car's stereo]], which predictably ends in him almost immediately falling asleep at the wheel and killing himself by crashing into a tree.
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* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The episode "Friends of Peter G." has Peter attempting to drive home from AA [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy while completely wasted.wasted]]. When Carl asks if he's actually okay to do so, Peter replies that he should be fine if he [[TooDumbToLive cranks up the heat and blasts the lullaby channel on his car's stereo]], which predictably ends in him almost immediately falling asleep at the wheel and killing himself by crashing into a tree.
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->''No commotion, no screaming brakes''
->''Most of it's over before I awake''
->''From the ceiling, my coffee cup drips''
->''While out my window, the horizon does flips''
->''The worst part was hitting the ground''
->''Not the feeling so much as the sound''
->''Can't help but wonder if all this is real''
->''Cause tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel''
-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" - Music/BarenakedLadies
->''Most of it's over before I awake''
->''From the ceiling, my coffee cup drips''
->''While out my window, the horizon does flips''
->''The worst part was hitting the ground''
->''Not the feeling so much as the sound''
->''Can't help but wonder if all this is real''
->''Cause tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel''
-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" - Music/BarenakedLadies
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->''No commotion, no screaming brakes''
->''Mostbrakes\\
Most of it's over before Iawake''
->''Fromawake\\
From the ceiling, my coffee cupdrips''
->''Whiledrips\\
While out my window, the horizon doesflips''
->''Theflips\\
The worst part was hitting theground''
->''Notground\\
Not the feeling so much as thesound''
->''Can'tsound\\
Can't help but wonder if all this isreal''
->''Causereal\\
Cause tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel''
-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at theWheel" - Wheel", Music/BarenakedLadies
->''Most
Most of it's over before I
->''From
From the ceiling, my coffee cup
->''While
While out my window, the horizon does
->''The
The worst part was hitting the
->''Not
Not the feeling so much as the
->''Can't
Can't help but wonder if all this is
->''Cause
Cause tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel''
-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at the
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* Discussed to an almost ridiculous degree on the ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' episode where Dawson's father died. Pacey, in his attempt to make his best friend feel better and alleviate his feelings of guilt, concocts an outlandish scenario about [[TheScapegoat some unknown workaholic man causing the accident that killed his father due to his preexisting tiredness.]] The truth is much simpler, albeit more embarrassing; Mr. Leary died due to [[TooDumbToLive picking up his fallen ice cream while driving.]]
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* Actor Nathaniel Marston fell asleep while driving and ended up critically injured and in a coma after a 2015 car accident. Although it was reported that if he came out of this state, he would have been a quadriplegic, he never regained consciousness and died of his injuries twelve days later.
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* Actor Nathaniel Marston Creator/NathanielMarston fell asleep while driving and ended up critically injured and in a coma after a 2015 car accident. Although it was reported that if he came out of this state, he would have been a quadriplegic, he never regained consciousness and died of his injuries twelve days later.
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Unfortunately, poor sleeping habits are common and since we all have responsibilities and errands to do, driving may be added to the mix, often leading to a dangerous outcome, be it being pulled over (if you're lucky) or more likely, getting into an accident that could injure yourself, someone else and or worse. Sometimes, one can actually catch themselves drifting off or have something else awake them (like a car horn or their passenger) and they manage to regain control of the vehicle and wake up, but sadly not always.
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Unfortunately, poor sleeping habits are common and since we all have responsibilities and errands to do, driving may be added to the mix, often leading to a dangerous outcome, be it being pulled over (if you're lucky) or more likely, getting into an accident that could injure yourself, someone else and else... or worse. Sometimes, one can actually catch themselves drifting off or have something else awake them (like a car horn or their passenger) and they manage to regain control of the vehicle and wake up, but sadly not always.
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* After spending most of the previous night talking by telephone and messaging with a woman he had met online, Gary Hart fell asleep on the M62 motorway near Selby, Yorkshire, England, while driving a Land Rover towing a trailer holding another car. The vehicle travelled down an embankment on to the main rail line between Edinburgh and London. Hart escaped from the car and while he was on the phone to the emergency services, an express passenger train travelling from Newcastle to London struck the Land Rover and was derailed into the path of a freight train travelling in the other direction. Both drivers, two train crew and six passengers on board the express train, as well as one of the two drivers of the freight train, were killed. 52 passengers were seriously injured. Hart received a five year prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.
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* After spending most of the previous night talking by telephone and messaging with a woman he had met online, Gary Hart fell asleep on the M62 motorway near Selby, Yorkshire, England, while driving a Land Rover towing a trailer holding another car. The vehicle travelled down an embankment on to the main rail line between Edinburgh and London. Hart escaped from the car and while he was on the phone to the emergency services, an express passenger train travelling from Newcastle to London struck the Land Rover and was derailed into the path of a freight train travelling in the other direction. Both drivers, two train crew and six passengers on board the express train, as well as one of the two drivers of the freight train, were killed. 52 passengers were seriously injured. Hart received a five year five-year prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.driving.
* Creator/TracyMorgan was among those injured in a June 2014 car crash caused by a Walmart driver who, according to the lawsuit Morgan filed, allegedly fell asleep at the wheel of his long-haul truck in addition to being awake for more than 24 hours at the time of the accident. The crash resulted in serious injuries for Morgan (who was also left in a two-week coma) and killed his friend and fellow comedian James [=McNair=].
* Creator/TracyMorgan was among those injured in a June 2014 car crash caused by a Walmart driver who, according to the lawsuit Morgan filed, allegedly fell asleep at the wheel of his long-haul truck in addition to being awake for more than 24 hours at the time of the accident. The crash resulted in serious injuries for Morgan (who was also left in a two-week coma) and killed his friend and fellow comedian James [=McNair=].
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* Mentioned by Everett in ''Film/DeltaFarce'' as how his uncle died, [[BlackComedy and that all of said uncle's friends in the car with him died trying to wake him up.]]
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Added a real life example demonstrating just how dangerous and tragic this can be
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* After spending most of the previous night talking by telephone and messaging with a woman he had met online, Gary Hart fell asleep on the M62 motorway near Selby, Yorkshire, England, while driving a Land Rover towing a trailer holding another car. The vehicle travelled down an embankment on to the main rail line between Edinburgh and London. Hart escaped from the car and while he was on the phone to the emergency services, an express passenger train travelling from Newcastle to London struck the Land Rover and was derailed into the path of a freight train travelling in the other direction. Both drivers, two train crew and six passengers on board the express train, as well as one of the two drivers of the freight train, were killed. 52 passengers were seriously injured. Hart received a five year prison sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.
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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
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[[folder:Anime and & Manga]]
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[[folder:Films: Animated]]
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[[folder:Films: Live-Action]]
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* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXICanOfWorms Can of Worms]]", Lister, having just eaten a large Sunday meal from Kryten, manages to fall asleep for an entire day whilst in charge of navigating the space vehicle Starbug. By the time the rest figure it out, the ship has drifted 5000 clicks off-course on their way back to Red Dwarf, and it's their attempts to return that kickstart the plot.
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* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXICanOfWorms Can of Worms]]", Lister, having just eaten a large Sunday meal from Kryten, manages to fall asleep for an entire day whilst in charge of navigating the space vehicle Starbug. By the time the rest figure it out, the ship has drifted 5000 5,000 clicks off-course on their way back to Red Dwarf, and it's their attempts to return that kickstart the plot.
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* ''Series/Charmed1998'': In [[Recap/CharmedS1E5DreamSorcerer the fifth episode]], after two close calls with a serial killer who attacks people in their dreams, Prue is exhausted from sleep deprivation. Despite her sisters' best efforts to keep her awake, she falls asleep at the wheel, crashes her car, and winds up at the Dream Sorcerer's mercy.
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[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/EuroTruckSimulator2'' has this as a game mechanic. If you drive for a long time, your driver will start to feel tired, and begin yawning and blacking out, eventually reaching the point of fully falling asleep for a few seconds, locking you out of the controls. Thankfully, rest stops can be periodically found on the many roads you traverse, which can be used to get some proper sleep in.
[[/folder]]
* ''VideoGame/EuroTruckSimulator2'' has this as a game mechanic. If you drive for a long time, your driver will start to feel tired, and begin yawning and blacking out, eventually reaching the point of fully falling asleep for a few seconds, locking you out of the controls. Thankfully, rest stops can be periodically found on the many roads you traverse, which can be used to get some proper sleep in.
[[/folder]]
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Added "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop" to Western Animation folder
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* ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'': On at least two occasions, Snoozy has fallen asleep while driving Chugga-Boom.
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[[folder:Print Media]]
* ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse: During the summer of 1996, Deanna Sobinski (who we haven't seen for years) accidentally sleeps while driving back from college due to exhaustion from studying for final exams, and ends up in a car accident. She's found by Michael Patterson and his friend Weed (the latter of the two ''nearly'' fell asleep while behind the wheel) and sent to the hospital, leading Michael and Deanna to reconnect after several years apart.
[[/folder]]
* ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse: During the summer of 1996, Deanna Sobinski (who we haven't seen for years) accidentally sleeps while driving back from college due to exhaustion from studying for final exams, and ends up in a car accident. She's found by Michael Patterson and his friend Weed (the latter of the two ''nearly'' fell asleep while behind the wheel) and sent to the hospital, leading Michael and Deanna to reconnect after several years apart.
[[/folder]]
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Created from YKTTW
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->''No commotion, no screaming brakes''
->''Most of it's over before I awake''
->''From the ceiling, my coffee cup drips''
->''While out my window, the horizon does flips''
->''The worst part was hitting the ground''
->''Not the feeling so much as the sound''
->''Can't help but wonder if all this is real''
->''Cause tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel''
-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" - Music/BarenakedLadies
[[AnAesop Adequate sleep is very important to our daily lives.]] After all, going too long without sleep, just like going too long without food, water and air, will kill a person.
Unfortunately, poor sleeping habits are common and since we all have responsibilities and errands to do, driving may be added to the mix, often leading to a dangerous outcome, be it being pulled over (if you're lucky) or more likely, getting into an accident that could injure yourself, someone else and or worse. Sometimes, one can actually catch themselves drifting off or have something else awake them (like a car horn or their passenger) and they manage to regain control of the vehicle and wake up, but sadly not always.
A sub trope to SleepAesop and SafeDrivingAesop. A possible outcome for someone suffering from OverworkedSleep or a TripleShifter if they aren't able to catch up on their sleep anytime between their shift and their departure from said job(s). See also SleepDeprivation, DangerousDrowsiness, ExhaustionInducedIdiocy and DrunkDriver.
Remember, if you ever do feel sleepy behind the wheel, ''[[SincerityMode please pull over.]]'' Even if you're on a highway or expressway, this is almost always an option: the shoulders aren't just for if you have car trouble. Additionally, numerous countries have rest stops/areas that allow a person to pull into while in their vehicles to actually ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin rest,]]'' be it for a few minutes or the entire night if necessary.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Advertising]]
* Transport Accident Commission ([=TAC=]), a Victoria, Australia-based organization devoted to teaching about safe driving, have quite a few ads about the dangerous of this:
** Possibly one of their most famous ads, "Night Shift", features a man picking up his girlfriend from her shift late at night and they spend the rest of the night driving. By morning, he eventually falls asleep and they crash into a lorry, killing them both instantly. It was remade several years later to show what the driver should have done instead, saving both of their lives.
** "Drowning" features a man and his family on holiday when the wife repeatedly asks him to pull over so they can rest, get something to eat, etc. only for him to decline. Ultimately, he falls asleep and they crash the car into a lake and while he manages to escape the car, his family's fates are left ambiguous as he futilely screams for help.
* [=RSA=] Ireland's Crashed Lives, an ad campaign about safe driving, features a young man talking about how his older brother died this way after meeting a friend after work for a late night movie.
* One ad from UK's "Think!" campaign has a closeup of a man with his eyes closed and the voice-over stating how he's going to die in his sleep tonight, comfortable and surrounded by his loved ones. It ends with TheReveal that he was asleep at the wheel and with his family when their car crashed, presumably killing everyone inside.
* PlayedForLaughs in an early 2000s commercial for Budget Rent-A-Car where a group of employees are brainstorming about ideas to make their cars more comfortable. When one suggests aromatherapy candles, a cutaway showcases a group of businessmen all asleep due to its effects, including the driver. After it goes off the road causing a huge pileup, the employees nix the idea.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* A ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' story have Nobita, being jealous of Suneo having his photograph of a building fire being published on the news (and Suneo's name appearing on the papers as a source) asking for Doraemon to produce a gadget that predicts disasters in advance so he can take a similar picture to compete against Suneo. Doraemon then brings up a new gadget, the Delay Camera which takes pictures of the future, and after a bunch of trivial accidents (a kid falling off his bike, a cat stuck on a roof, etc.) Nobita eventually captured a photo of the local gas station exploding, due to happen in 12 hours. Turns out the disaster is caused by a sleepy truck driver ramming his vehicle into a parked oil tanker, but Nobita eventually decides to use the premonition to stop a disaster rather than taking a new picture as a contest.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* The premise of the ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'' episode "Sleepy Docs" is about Lamput finding that the docs have fallen asleep in their van while chasing after him all day, leaving him to get them to safety before they crash.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comedy]]
* Discussed in ''Creator/RowanAtkinson Live'' during the "Date" segment. The narrator states that while driving your date to the restaurant that if you are aggressive (honking the horn, giving the finger, etc.), you probably will lose her respect and if you are drowsy behind the wheel, you probably should have taken a taxi.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Eastern Animation]]
* ''Animation/KikoRiki'': In "Flying in a Dream and in Reality", Pin helps Barry spray chemicals on his wheat fields. Unfortunately, he got distracted by "Captain Colobo" comics and didn't get enough sleep the night prior. What follows is a bunch of shenanigans caused by Pin falling asleep on the plane, all PlayedForLaughs. He's only awaken thanks to accidentally picking up Carlin and having him to make Pin wake up. Both safely escape the plane just a few seconds before it crashes, though Pin still ends up suffering heavy injuries.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Films: Animated]]
* A variant in the first ''Franchise/{{Cars}}'' movie; as the vehicles are sentient, they are able to drive themselves. When Lightning [=McQueen=] ties for first place with Strip "The King" Weathers and [[BigBad Chick Hicks]], he makes Mack, his semi-hauler transport him to California for the tiebreaker race. To ensure that he gets there before his competitors, he tells Mack not to stop for anything. Mack becomes tired when Lightning refuses to let him rest at a truck stop, and as a result, he gets bounced around by the Delinquent Road Hazards, resulting in Lightning getting separated from him and lost in Radiator Springs.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Films: Live-Action]]
* Defied in ''Film/MyFirstMister''. When on a road trip with Randall's son Randy to [[spoiler:say goodbye to him before he passes from leukemia,]] both Randy and J eat coffee grounds to stay awake as well as other entertaining hijinks in their travels.
* ''Film/DumbAndDumber'': PlayedForLaughs when Lloyd has a [[FantasySequence lengthy daydream]] about his one-sided love interest while driving. It [[CuttingBackToReality cuts back to reality]] when she takes off her shirt and reveals the headlights of an oncoming truck.
* ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'': PlayedForLaughs when the entire Griswold family fall asleep in the car on a long {{Road Trip|Plot}}. After a string of near-misses, Clark wakes up just in time to scream, hit the brakes, and swerve [[ImprobableParkingSkills straight into their motel parking lot]].
* In ''Film/IRobot'' cars run on autopilot by default but in Spooner's backstory he was in a car accident caused by a trucker sleeping behind the wheel.
* In ''Film/DueDate'', Ethan falls asleep while driving and crashes the car. Peter wakes up just in time to see the horror of the crash. Afterwards, Peter has a broken arm, but Ethan is uninjured because he didn't "tense up".
* ''Film/TheyDriveByNight:'' The Fabrini brothers are truckers who work together in alternating shifts, with Paul driving during the day and Joe driving at nights. Joe eventually grows unhappy with this arrangement and insists that they should take turns on those night shifts. Unused to being up so late, Paul falls asleep behind the wheel during his very first night drive and crashes the truck. Joe gets out unscathed, but Paul loses an arm, and their truck is totalled.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jokes]]
* A classic joke: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandpa; not screaming in terror, like the passengers in the car he was driving."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'': While the group is hover-cycling over a plain larger than the Earth Teela Brown gets a bad case of "highway hypnosis" and crashes. Due to her ridiculous quasi-psionic [[BornLucky luck]] she's fine but the others nearly get killed trying to rescue her.
* In one edition of ''[[Literature/ChickenSoupForTheSoul Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul]]'', a girl talks about her Uncle by marriage, Bryce, who in addition to being a CoolUncle, but is also like a big brother and a friend to her. He sadly died this way when leaving his job one night.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim adds a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she ends up dozing off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and all the papers in her briefcase flying around.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': PlayedForDrama in "Living the Dream". Sleep-deprived from his newborn child, Dexter makes a series of mistakes throughout the episode, culminating in falling asleep and crashing his car at the end. In the next episode, he's hospitalized and his car is towed... with [[SerialKillerKiller his latest victim's corpse]] still hidden in the trunk.
* ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' episode "Less Than Perfect" has Blair getting into a car accident after leaving her boyfriend's house and falling sleep whilst driving. The episode entails her having to undergo surgery to repair a disfiguring scar she received from it and her feelings of regret and insecurity over the scenario.
* ''Series/FatherTed'': PlayedForLaughs in "[[Recap/FatherTedS2E2ThinkFastFatherTed Think Fast Father Ted]]", following picking up the replacement car from Father Finnegan's Ted mentions to buckle in cause its a long drive home. The next scene cuts to them driving through the night, only to reveal their both sound asleep with the car harmlessly carrying on until it pulls up in front of the parochial house, and then both casually waking up as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXICanOfWorms Can of Worms]]", Lister, having just eaten a large Sunday meal from Kryten, manages to fall asleep for an entire day whilst in charge of navigating the space vehicle Starbug. By the time the rest figure it out, the ship has drifted 5000 clicks off-course on their way back to Red Dwarf, and it's their attempts to return that kickstart the plot.
* ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents'': In "Magic Highway, U.S.A.", during an animated segment about potential solutions to highway problems, one of them is a "slumberbus" that carries cars on a hook so fatigued drivers could get some rest. Even its driver is asleep!
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Manhua]]
* Parodied in one ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' strip when Mr. Chin buys a new car. The sales promoter tells him "our latest model have the ''most comfortable seats'' around" and allows Chin to take the ride for a test drive. The seat is indeed so comfy... to the point until Chin dozes off and crashes.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Genesis|Band}}: In ''Music/WeCantDance'', the song "Dreaming While You Sleep" revolves around a man who fatally runs over a woman thanks to him drifting "in and out of sleep" while at the wheel. Since he's still extremely tired when he hits her, he impulsively keeps driving, resulting in him being dogged with guilt for the rest of his life.
* Music/BarenakedLadies song "The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" is from the perspective of a man who, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title of the song suggests]], fell asleep driving and got in a serious car accident.
* Music/FallingInReverse: "Popular Monster" mentions this as part of the self-destructive behavior brought on by the singer's depression.
-->''I fell asleep at the wheel again''
-->''Crashed my car just to feel again''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Comedian Richard Pryor mentions in his act that a big reason he gave up doing drugs is that he got tired of waking up in his car, doing 90 mph (145 kph).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'': In the backstory to the second episode, Mimi Miney fell asleep at the wheel due to being overworked at her job as a nurse, resulting in a fatal accident.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'': In one episode, Abe goes through an addiction to not sleeping. When driving home, he falls asleep for a brief minute and almost hits a truck full of pandas.
* Subverted in the "Uneasy Rider" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic''. Jay takes the job as a trucker and in spite of several tempting roadside distractions (including a group of French bakers whose vehicle broke down) and his own sleepiness (even to the point of eyes blinking one at a time), he is determined to get to his destination in the designated time.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The episode "Friends of Peter G." has Peter attempting to drive home from AA while completely wasted. When Carl asks if he's actually okay to do so, Peter replies that he should be fine if he [[TooDumbToLive cranks up the heat and blasts the lullaby channel on his car's stereo]], which predictably ends in him almost immediately falling asleep at the wheel and killing himself by crashing into a tree.
* Seen plenty of times on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and always PlayedForLaughs:
** In "Lisa's Pony", Homer, who now works at the Kwik-E-Mart to pay expenses for the pony he bought Lisa, drifts off [[TripleShifter while driving home for his brief time asleep before doing his usual shift at the Plant.]] After dreaming about being in a pleasant dreamland of beds and angels, he miraculously makes it home with little damage to him or the car (save for a part of a gate caught on the undercarriage of it, him crashing into the garage and a power saw falling on his head once he exits the car).
** In "Itchy and Scratchy Land", Homer is drowsy while driving the family to find a motel during the vacation. As Marge begs him to just pull over and he insist that he's okay to drive, the purple car slams into a telephone pole and catches on fire. We then see [[BaitAndSwitch the family themselves viewing the aftermath of the crash from their hotel room and being thankful that it wasn't them.]]
** In "Maximum Homerdrive", Homer, now working as a trucker, bring Bart along on one of his jobs and at one point fall asleep behind the wheel. [[spoiler:He's only saved by a secret technique among truckers where the truck drives itself to protect its occupants from any harm and make sure their business is kept afloat.]]
** In "Half-Decent Proposal", a sleep-deprived Marge, who is losing sleep over Homer's snoring, is attempting to drive Bart, Lisa and Milhouse to school, when she suddenly falls out of the car and gets some rest and leaves the children [[DinkyDrivers to try and drive her car instead.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' two-part story, "Only A Dream", Doctor Destiny uses his new DreamWalker abilities to terrorize the Justice League by trapping them in their nightmares. When Batman realizes this, he does anything he can to stay awake. Try as he might, he becomes tired enough to accidentally drive the Batmobile straight into a cluster of trash cans, cracking the windshield. Batman then orders a triple espresso, punches out the now cracked window, and turns on the most annoying radio music he can to keep himself awake.
* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldsBabesAndBullets'': Professor O'Tabby's death came about from him falling asleep while driving on a cliff side road, leading to his car going off the edge of the cliff. The police believe he was simply exhausted, but his wife suspects otherwise, leading to her hiring PrivateEye Sam Spayed to investigate. [[spoiler:Her suspicions are correct, as O'Tabby was actually an insomniac with a coffee addiction. The truth behind his death was that his co-worker Professor O'Felix drugged his coffee with prescription sleeping pills before he went on a routine drive, which would force him to fall asleep at the wheel]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Long-haul truckers are only supposed to drive a certain number of hours a day (which they often ignore), pilots are supposed to have a mandatory rest period and cannot fly any more after a certain number of hours flown, and even military personnel traveling from one base to another are advised not to drive more than 500 miles in a day.
* Actor Nathaniel Marston fell asleep while driving and ended up critically injured and in a coma after a 2015 car accident. Although it was reported that if he came out of this state, he would have been a quadriplegic, he never regained consciousness and died of his injuries twelve days later.
[[/folder]]
->''Most of it's over before I awake''
->''From the ceiling, my coffee cup drips''
->''While out my window, the horizon does flips''
->''The worst part was hitting the ground''
->''Not the feeling so much as the sound''
->''Can't help but wonder if all this is real''
->''Cause tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel''
-->--"The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" - Music/BarenakedLadies
[[AnAesop Adequate sleep is very important to our daily lives.]] After all, going too long without sleep, just like going too long without food, water and air, will kill a person.
Unfortunately, poor sleeping habits are common and since we all have responsibilities and errands to do, driving may be added to the mix, often leading to a dangerous outcome, be it being pulled over (if you're lucky) or more likely, getting into an accident that could injure yourself, someone else and or worse. Sometimes, one can actually catch themselves drifting off or have something else awake them (like a car horn or their passenger) and they manage to regain control of the vehicle and wake up, but sadly not always.
A sub trope to SleepAesop and SafeDrivingAesop. A possible outcome for someone suffering from OverworkedSleep or a TripleShifter if they aren't able to catch up on their sleep anytime between their shift and their departure from said job(s). See also SleepDeprivation, DangerousDrowsiness, ExhaustionInducedIdiocy and DrunkDriver.
Remember, if you ever do feel sleepy behind the wheel, ''[[SincerityMode please pull over.]]'' Even if you're on a highway or expressway, this is almost always an option: the shoulders aren't just for if you have car trouble. Additionally, numerous countries have rest stops/areas that allow a person to pull into while in their vehicles to actually ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin rest,]]'' be it for a few minutes or the entire night if necessary.
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder:Advertising]]
* Transport Accident Commission ([=TAC=]), a Victoria, Australia-based organization devoted to teaching about safe driving, have quite a few ads about the dangerous of this:
** Possibly one of their most famous ads, "Night Shift", features a man picking up his girlfriend from her shift late at night and they spend the rest of the night driving. By morning, he eventually falls asleep and they crash into a lorry, killing them both instantly. It was remade several years later to show what the driver should have done instead, saving both of their lives.
** "Drowning" features a man and his family on holiday when the wife repeatedly asks him to pull over so they can rest, get something to eat, etc. only for him to decline. Ultimately, he falls asleep and they crash the car into a lake and while he manages to escape the car, his family's fates are left ambiguous as he futilely screams for help.
* [=RSA=] Ireland's Crashed Lives, an ad campaign about safe driving, features a young man talking about how his older brother died this way after meeting a friend after work for a late night movie.
* One ad from UK's "Think!" campaign has a closeup of a man with his eyes closed and the voice-over stating how he's going to die in his sleep tonight, comfortable and surrounded by his loved ones. It ends with TheReveal that he was asleep at the wheel and with his family when their car crashed, presumably killing everyone inside.
* PlayedForLaughs in an early 2000s commercial for Budget Rent-A-Car where a group of employees are brainstorming about ideas to make their cars more comfortable. When one suggests aromatherapy candles, a cutaway showcases a group of businessmen all asleep due to its effects, including the driver. After it goes off the road causing a huge pileup, the employees nix the idea.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* A ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' story have Nobita, being jealous of Suneo having his photograph of a building fire being published on the news (and Suneo's name appearing on the papers as a source) asking for Doraemon to produce a gadget that predicts disasters in advance so he can take a similar picture to compete against Suneo. Doraemon then brings up a new gadget, the Delay Camera which takes pictures of the future, and after a bunch of trivial accidents (a kid falling off his bike, a cat stuck on a roof, etc.) Nobita eventually captured a photo of the local gas station exploding, due to happen in 12 hours. Turns out the disaster is caused by a sleepy truck driver ramming his vehicle into a parked oil tanker, but Nobita eventually decides to use the premonition to stop a disaster rather than taking a new picture as a contest.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Asian Animation]]
* The premise of the ''Animation/{{Lamput}}'' episode "Sleepy Docs" is about Lamput finding that the docs have fallen asleep in their van while chasing after him all day, leaving him to get them to safety before they crash.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Comedy]]
* Discussed in ''Creator/RowanAtkinson Live'' during the "Date" segment. The narrator states that while driving your date to the restaurant that if you are aggressive (honking the horn, giving the finger, etc.), you probably will lose her respect and if you are drowsy behind the wheel, you probably should have taken a taxi.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Eastern Animation]]
* ''Animation/KikoRiki'': In "Flying in a Dream and in Reality", Pin helps Barry spray chemicals on his wheat fields. Unfortunately, he got distracted by "Captain Colobo" comics and didn't get enough sleep the night prior. What follows is a bunch of shenanigans caused by Pin falling asleep on the plane, all PlayedForLaughs. He's only awaken thanks to accidentally picking up Carlin and having him to make Pin wake up. Both safely escape the plane just a few seconds before it crashes, though Pin still ends up suffering heavy injuries.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Films: Animated]]
* A variant in the first ''Franchise/{{Cars}}'' movie; as the vehicles are sentient, they are able to drive themselves. When Lightning [=McQueen=] ties for first place with Strip "The King" Weathers and [[BigBad Chick Hicks]], he makes Mack, his semi-hauler transport him to California for the tiebreaker race. To ensure that he gets there before his competitors, he tells Mack not to stop for anything. Mack becomes tired when Lightning refuses to let him rest at a truck stop, and as a result, he gets bounced around by the Delinquent Road Hazards, resulting in Lightning getting separated from him and lost in Radiator Springs.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Films: Live-Action]]
* Defied in ''Film/MyFirstMister''. When on a road trip with Randall's son Randy to [[spoiler:say goodbye to him before he passes from leukemia,]] both Randy and J eat coffee grounds to stay awake as well as other entertaining hijinks in their travels.
* ''Film/DumbAndDumber'': PlayedForLaughs when Lloyd has a [[FantasySequence lengthy daydream]] about his one-sided love interest while driving. It [[CuttingBackToReality cuts back to reality]] when she takes off her shirt and reveals the headlights of an oncoming truck.
* ''Film/NationalLampoonsVacation'': PlayedForLaughs when the entire Griswold family fall asleep in the car on a long {{Road Trip|Plot}}. After a string of near-misses, Clark wakes up just in time to scream, hit the brakes, and swerve [[ImprobableParkingSkills straight into their motel parking lot]].
* In ''Film/IRobot'' cars run on autopilot by default but in Spooner's backstory he was in a car accident caused by a trucker sleeping behind the wheel.
* In ''Film/DueDate'', Ethan falls asleep while driving and crashes the car. Peter wakes up just in time to see the horror of the crash. Afterwards, Peter has a broken arm, but Ethan is uninjured because he didn't "tense up".
* ''Film/TheyDriveByNight:'' The Fabrini brothers are truckers who work together in alternating shifts, with Paul driving during the day and Joe driving at nights. Joe eventually grows unhappy with this arrangement and insists that they should take turns on those night shifts. Unused to being up so late, Paul falls asleep behind the wheel during his very first night drive and crashes the truck. Joe gets out unscathed, but Paul loses an arm, and their truck is totalled.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Jokes]]
* A classic joke: "I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandpa; not screaming in terror, like the passengers in the car he was driving."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/{{Ringworld}}'': While the group is hover-cycling over a plain larger than the Earth Teela Brown gets a bad case of "highway hypnosis" and crashes. Due to her ridiculous quasi-psionic [[BornLucky luck]] she's fine but the others nearly get killed trying to rescue her.
* In one edition of ''[[Literature/ChickenSoupForTheSoul Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul]]'', a girl talks about her Uncle by marriage, Bryce, who in addition to being a CoolUncle, but is also like a big brother and a friend to her. He sadly died this way when leaving his job one night.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Kim adds a new client even though she already has plenty of work to do for Mesa Verde. She ends up so exhausted that she ends up dozing off at the wheel, crashing her car. When she wakes up, she is in a deserted location with a broken arm and all the papers in her briefcase flying around.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': PlayedForDrama in "Living the Dream". Sleep-deprived from his newborn child, Dexter makes a series of mistakes throughout the episode, culminating in falling asleep and crashing his car at the end. In the next episode, he's hospitalized and his car is towed... with [[SerialKillerKiller his latest victim's corpse]] still hidden in the trunk.
* ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' episode "Less Than Perfect" has Blair getting into a car accident after leaving her boyfriend's house and falling sleep whilst driving. The episode entails her having to undergo surgery to repair a disfiguring scar she received from it and her feelings of regret and insecurity over the scenario.
* ''Series/FatherTed'': PlayedForLaughs in "[[Recap/FatherTedS2E2ThinkFastFatherTed Think Fast Father Ted]]", following picking up the replacement car from Father Finnegan's Ted mentions to buckle in cause its a long drive home. The next scene cuts to them driving through the night, only to reveal their both sound asleep with the car harmlessly carrying on until it pulls up in front of the parochial house, and then both casually waking up as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'': In "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonXICanOfWorms Can of Worms]]", Lister, having just eaten a large Sunday meal from Kryten, manages to fall asleep for an entire day whilst in charge of navigating the space vehicle Starbug. By the time the rest figure it out, the ship has drifted 5000 clicks off-course on their way back to Red Dwarf, and it's their attempts to return that kickstart the plot.
* ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents'': In "Magic Highway, U.S.A.", during an animated segment about potential solutions to highway problems, one of them is a "slumberbus" that carries cars on a hook so fatigued drivers could get some rest. Even its driver is asleep!
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Manhua]]
* Parodied in one ''Manhua/OldMasterQ'' strip when Mr. Chin buys a new car. The sales promoter tells him "our latest model have the ''most comfortable seats'' around" and allows Chin to take the ride for a test drive. The seat is indeed so comfy... to the point until Chin dozes off and crashes.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Genesis|Band}}: In ''Music/WeCantDance'', the song "Dreaming While You Sleep" revolves around a man who fatally runs over a woman thanks to him drifting "in and out of sleep" while at the wheel. Since he's still extremely tired when he hits her, he impulsively keeps driving, resulting in him being dogged with guilt for the rest of his life.
* Music/BarenakedLadies song "The Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel" is from the perspective of a man who, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin as the title of the song suggests]], fell asleep driving and got in a serious car accident.
* Music/FallingInReverse: "Popular Monster" mentions this as part of the self-destructive behavior brought on by the singer's depression.
-->''I fell asleep at the wheel again''
-->''Crashed my car just to feel again''
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Comedian Richard Pryor mentions in his act that a big reason he gave up doing drugs is that he got tired of waking up in his car, doing 90 mph (145 kph).
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'': In the backstory to the second episode, Mimi Miney fell asleep at the wheel due to being overworked at her job as a nurse, resulting in a fatal accident.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'': In one episode, Abe goes through an addiction to not sleeping. When driving home, he falls asleep for a brief minute and almost hits a truck full of pandas.
* Subverted in the "Uneasy Rider" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic''. Jay takes the job as a trucker and in spite of several tempting roadside distractions (including a group of French bakers whose vehicle broke down) and his own sleepiness (even to the point of eyes blinking one at a time), he is determined to get to his destination in the designated time.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': The episode "Friends of Peter G." has Peter attempting to drive home from AA while completely wasted. When Carl asks if he's actually okay to do so, Peter replies that he should be fine if he [[TooDumbToLive cranks up the heat and blasts the lullaby channel on his car's stereo]], which predictably ends in him almost immediately falling asleep at the wheel and killing himself by crashing into a tree.
* Seen plenty of times on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and always PlayedForLaughs:
** In "Lisa's Pony", Homer, who now works at the Kwik-E-Mart to pay expenses for the pony he bought Lisa, drifts off [[TripleShifter while driving home for his brief time asleep before doing his usual shift at the Plant.]] After dreaming about being in a pleasant dreamland of beds and angels, he miraculously makes it home with little damage to him or the car (save for a part of a gate caught on the undercarriage of it, him crashing into the garage and a power saw falling on his head once he exits the car).
** In "Itchy and Scratchy Land", Homer is drowsy while driving the family to find a motel during the vacation. As Marge begs him to just pull over and he insist that he's okay to drive, the purple car slams into a telephone pole and catches on fire. We then see [[BaitAndSwitch the family themselves viewing the aftermath of the crash from their hotel room and being thankful that it wasn't them.]]
** In "Maximum Homerdrive", Homer, now working as a trucker, bring Bart along on one of his jobs and at one point fall asleep behind the wheel. [[spoiler:He's only saved by a secret technique among truckers where the truck drives itself to protect its occupants from any harm and make sure their business is kept afloat.]]
** In "Half-Decent Proposal", a sleep-deprived Marge, who is losing sleep over Homer's snoring, is attempting to drive Bart, Lisa and Milhouse to school, when she suddenly falls out of the car and gets some rest and leaves the children [[DinkyDrivers to try and drive her car instead.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' two-part story, "Only A Dream", Doctor Destiny uses his new DreamWalker abilities to terrorize the Justice League by trapping them in their nightmares. When Batman realizes this, he does anything he can to stay awake. Try as he might, he becomes tired enough to accidentally drive the Batmobile straight into a cluster of trash cans, cracking the windshield. Batman then orders a triple espresso, punches out the now cracked window, and turns on the most annoying radio music he can to keep himself awake.
* ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldsBabesAndBullets'': Professor O'Tabby's death came about from him falling asleep while driving on a cliff side road, leading to his car going off the edge of the cliff. The police believe he was simply exhausted, but his wife suspects otherwise, leading to her hiring PrivateEye Sam Spayed to investigate. [[spoiler:Her suspicions are correct, as O'Tabby was actually an insomniac with a coffee addiction. The truth behind his death was that his co-worker Professor O'Felix drugged his coffee with prescription sleeping pills before he went on a routine drive, which would force him to fall asleep at the wheel]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Real Life]]
* Long-haul truckers are only supposed to drive a certain number of hours a day (which they often ignore), pilots are supposed to have a mandatory rest period and cannot fly any more after a certain number of hours flown, and even military personnel traveling from one base to another are advised not to drive more than 500 miles in a day.
* Actor Nathaniel Marston fell asleep while driving and ended up critically injured and in a coma after a 2015 car accident. Although it was reported that if he came out of this state, he would have been a quadriplegic, he never regained consciousness and died of his injuries twelve days later.
[[/folder]]
