Highway Hypnosis

Have you ever driven home and arrived at your destination without remembering how you got there? No, you weren't abducted by aliens or taken over by your alternate persona. You simply experienced highway hypnosis. Highway hypnosis or white line fever is a trance-like state under which a person drives a motor vehicle in a normal, safe manner yet has no recollection of having done so. Drivers experiencing highway hypnosis may zone out for short distances or for hundreds of miles. Highway hypnosis is an example of the phenomenon of automaticity, which is the ability to perform actions without consciously thinking about them. People perform daily activities automatically all the time, such as walking, riding a bike, or performing a learned and practiced skill, such as knitting. Once a skill is mastered, it's possible to perform it while focusing on other tasks. For example, a person skilled at driving a car can plan a grocery list while driving. Because the stream of consciousness is directed at the other task, partial or complete amnesia of the time spent driving can occur. While driving on automatic may seem hazardous, automaticity may be superior to conscious driving for professional or skilled drivers. When a person experiencing true highway hypnosis automatically scans the environment for threats and alerts the brain to danger, this is the typical distinction from dangerous fatigued driving.