Prepping for long road trips can feel exhilarating. Packed bags and itinerary set. Check. Salty, sweet snacks stashed in a handy spot? Check. Plush interior, blankets and pillows, blasting A/C, and a carefully curated cruising playlist ready? Check, check, check, and check.
Of course, even the coziest upholstery and upbeat bangers can’t always shake that aching, exhausted feeling that sets in after the third or fourth hour on the road to your favorite trailhead or camping grounds. You’re not lifting heavy things or solving complex math equations in the car: you’re just sitting there. Why do long road trips make us feel so utterly blegh?
Basically, a whole lot of nothing and everything is happening simultaneously when you’re stuck on the car for hours.
“The human brain requires a certain level of stimulation to remain engaged and alert,” John Gaspar, PhD, told Outside. “Both too much and too little stimulation can lead to impaired performance.” Gaspar is the director of human factors research at the Driving Safety Research Institute at the University of Iowa. His main area of expertise is studying how humans interact with vehicles and how impairment, distraction, and other factors affect driving ability; one of his current projects focuses on alleviating drowsiness during long overnight drives.
If you can relate to feeling pretty terrible during a long drive on your way to your ultimate outdoor destination, experts explain why and exactly what happens to your body on a road trip.
Your Eyes Get Extremely Tired, and Your Brain Tries to Keep You Awake
Reading a book or doomscrolling for hours on end is a piece of cake. But focusing on the road for extended periods, however, is a totally different ballgame, Gaspar told Outside.
“A driver’s eyes are really informative during fatigue– or drowsiness-impacted long drives,” Gaspar said. Even early in a road trip, drivers start to shift in their seats and do what they can to stay awake. This describes that antsy feeling you get while sitting in the driver’s seat. People may amp up the music volume or blast the A/C, Gaspar said. “At later stages in the drive, drivers will start having microsleep events, where they actually fall asleep for several seconds. These changes happen pretty quickly, especially when drivers are somewhat sleep-deprived,” he said.
These microsleeps, Gaspar explained, can occur within the first hour to 90 minutes of a long drive. Unfortunately, he says the things you might do to wake yourself up—like rolling down your window or cranking up the music—are virtually useless in regaining alertness. “People do a lot of things they think will help with fatigue that have actually been shown to have little to no benefit,” he explained.
In short, Gaspar said, sitting in the car for a long period feels bad and tiring because you’re understimulated and overstimulated at the same time. You might feel overtaxed by the stress of navigating and swerving around angry jerks in suped-up monster trucks, but simultaneously understimulated from moving down a long stretch of road, he said. Together, they’re a bad combination for staying alert.
A Long Road Trip Wreaks Havoc on Your Neck, Shoulders, and Hands
According to Brian M. Cervoni Rosario, MD, a sports medicine physiatrist at Boston Medical Center, your upper body can take a beating during long hauls on the road.
“The neck and shoulders suffer disproportionately because drivers actively stabilize the head against vehicle motion while maintaining forward gaze, creating sustained isometric contraction (tightening of the muscle) in the neck flexors and upper trapezius,” Dr. Rosario told Outside. In other words, your neck and upper back muscles get really strained.
Plus, if weaving through traffic stresses you out (which is probably the case for all of us), you might carry a ton of that tension in your neck and shoulders, hence the stiff upper body.
Gripping and controlling the wheel for an extended period can affect your hands, too. A 2022 study of taxi drivers found that their handgrip decreases because of the car’s vibration while it’s being operated.
Every Body Part From Your Butt to Your Feet Take a Hit
For a lot of us, driving feels like second nature—the average American spends about one hour behind the wheel daily, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety. Given how frequently we cruise, it’s sometimes easy to forget we’re operating a 4,000-pound piece of heavy, complex machinery, one with near-constant movement and vibrations. Those same vibrations that affect grip strength pulse through the entire body, too, affecting your driving and contributing to pain.
“Vibration transmission from the vehicle seat amplifies spinal loading, particularly at the lumbar and cervical regions,” Dr. Rosario said. The cervical region of the spine includes the seven vertebrae of the neck that support your head.
Plus, your lower body also undergoes subtle but repetitive isometric muscle contractions to reach and press the pedals with your legs and feet, which research shows can often lead to discomfort over time. Sitting for long periods also places a significant amount of compression on the butt, thighs, and back, resulting in stiffness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that people who sit in vehicles for prolonged periods are more likely to develop blood clots, so it’s especially important to get out and move whenever you can.
Food in Your Gut Doesn’t Move, and You Get Backed Up
Predictability is crucial for a healthy stomach, Rudolph Bedford, MD, a board-certified gastroenterologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, told Outside. But on a road trip, your routine can get wildly out of whack.
“When you move, your gut moves. You don’t move, it doesn’t move, so when you’re sitting in a car for long periods, you can get backed up,” he said. “Bloating and gassiness are very typical of bus drivers and cab drivers; they’re traveling a lot. The constipation is a setup for hemorrhoids to occur.”
He said a seatbelt compressing on your stomach doesn’t help much, either.
What’s more, you’re probably not grabbing the most gut-friendly items—like a fiber-packed apple or a pack of carrots—at whatever gas station, fast-food restaurant, or questionable local dive bar you find on the road.
“Usually people are reaching for foods that are low in fiber, high in fat, and have plenty of salt. All of those things tend to slow gastric emptying,” Dr. Bedford said, adding that sodas, sugar-free gums, and caffeine can also contribute to abdominal woes.
The Solve for All Road Trip Pains? Stop and Get Out of the Car.
For most of the ailments above, the primary, no-fail solution is to simply pull over. “Once fatigue and drowsiness set in, the best thing a driver can do is stop to rest, even if just for ten to 20 minutes,” Gaspar said.
To alleviate abdominal discomfort: “Stop every two to three hours,” Dr. Bedford said. “Walk around for five to ten minutes just to keep things moving. It stimulates the bowels and keeps gas moving through your system. More importantly, it supports leg circulation.”
If you don’t feel safe exiting your car, simply pulling over to twist your torso, flex your ankles, and focus on something besides the road can help.
Yes, frequent pull-overs will make your ride longer. But as the trite old saying goes, those pit stops might make the journey feel like half the fun—or at least make the next part of the trip a bit less excruciating.
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The post Everything That Happens to Your Body on a Road Trip appeared first on Outside Online.