Drive Awake

25/08/2026

You are doing a great public health service." When his voice went online, Carlos H. Schenck, one of the fathers of sleep medicine, wrote us these words: we keep them as the direction of this work. https://driveawake.ch/communications/eco-schenck.html?lang=en

23/08/2026

During Nyepi, the Day of Silence, Bali stands still for twenty-four hours: no travelling, no work, no lights. If stopping were a value, and not a defeat, how many drivers would keep going anyway?

One day a year, all of Bali stands still. Nyepi, the legitimacy of stopping and sleepiness at the wheel.

06/08/2026

They are not fourteen separate things. They are five families, one shared risk: sleepiness at the wheel.

On the Drive Awake platform, in the Sleep Science section, the 14 sleep disorders are gathered into families - quantity, quality, timing, hypersomnias, parasomnias - all with the same destination: daytime sleepiness, and on the road, the danger.

Coming soon: new descriptions, interviews and links. The platform grows - stay tuned.

Sleep Science → driveawake.ch/sleep-science

Produced by Opening®.

06/08/2026

DRIVE AWAKE · SLEEP SCIENCE
Sleep disorders
How sleep conditions affect attention and driving. Five families, one shared risk: sleepiness at the wheel.
14 documented · five families

How sleep conditions affect attention and driving. Five families, one shared risk: sleepiness at the wheel.

04/08/2026

In 1917 a poster promised to “save daylight”: just move the clock one hour ahead.

A century later we know a law moves the wall clock, not the body’s clock. In spring, daylight saving takes an hour of sleep from everyone, all at once.

A study in Current Biology (2020) found more fatal crashes in the days after the shift - modest, more marked in the morning. An association, to be verified in real driving. But sleepiness at the wheel does not ask permission.

We can’t stop the clocks. We can recognise the window of risk and plan around it.

Full article → link in bio (driveawake.ch)

Produced by Opening®.

sleepmedicine

DOI (first comment): 10.1016/j.cub.2019.12.045

25/07/2026

Ten years ago, on 26 July 2016, on the A2 in Leventina: a fatal crash. At the wheel, a driver with undiagnosed sleep apnoea. He was acquitted: no test could measure, beforehand, how dangerous his sleepiness was.

This is the Quinto case. And it raises a question that concerns us all: how do we recognise, and prevent, sleepiness at the wheel before it's too late?

Today, science is beginning to answer. A study by IRM-UZH distinguishes acute sleep deprivation with a classifier of 12 molecular features in saliva: a laboratory proof of concept, still to be validated on real driving.

With Drive Awake, we want to open a debate on prevention, not blame.

The case, with sources: driveawake.ch/communications/quinto-2026.html?lang=en

The Quinto case, 26 July 2016 on the A2 in Leventina: sleepiness at the wheel and the limit of proof. Ten years on, the IRM Zürich scientific breakthrough.

17/07/2026

How is sleepiness measured?

For alcohol, there is a value in the blood. For sleepiness, not yet: no roadside test. But science is learning to measure it, in two ways.

In the clinic, with tests that observe how quickly you fall asleep and how long you can stay awake (MSLT and MWT, EOC sleep centre). And in the body’s biochemistry: the IRM Zurich study looks for a signal of sleepiness in saliva (DOI 10.1021/acs.jproteome.5c01064). A proof of concept, still to be validated in real driving.

Why it matters: what can be measured can be prevented.

Read more on the site:
https://driveawake.ch/sleep-science.php?lang=en&d=how-sleepiness-is-measured

The danger without a signal.

07/07/2026

Sleep shapes every moment behind the wheel. Not just on long drives. On every commute, every evening return, every early morning departure.

Drive Awake is a Swiss project asking one question: how do we make the invisible visible?

The platform is now online - in English, Italian, French and German.

What's there:
Sleep Science - six sleep disorders documented with sources and research. Not to alarm, but to inform.

Case reference - Quinto, July 26, 2016. A German family killed on the A2 in Leventina. The driver had severe sleep apnoea he didn't know about. He was acquitted. There was no test.

Ten years later, researchers at IRM Zurich have identified a biochemical signature of sleep deprivation in saliva. The question Quinto left open may finally have a direction of answer.

The platform is a work in progress. Science, documentary, awareness campaign. Built around the people who share the road.

Sleep shapes every moment behind the wheel. Drive Awake is a Swiss project on sleep science, attention and road safety — documentary, research and awareness campaign.

07/07/2026

Sleep shapes every moment behind the wheel.
We built a platform to make that visible.
driveawake.ch - link in bio.

17/06/2026

😴Does sleep influence safety more than we think?

At the 2025, held at Monte Verità in Ascona ( ), leading international experts in sleep medicine, neuroscience, psychiatry, and forensic science came together to explore the real-world impact of sleep disorders.

The symposium brought together leading experts in sleep research and medicine, Prof. Med. Mauro Manconi, Prof. Med. Claudio Bassetti, and Prof. Med. Carlos H. Schenck, bridging medicine, neuroscience, and law to improve awareness and prevention of sleep-related risks.

Key topics included:

◾ — impaired reaction time and decision-making with risks such as lane departure, delayed braking, and road accidents
◾ — disruption of the body’s internal clock leading to sleep debt, reduced performance, and workplace risks
◾ — parasomnia involving unconscious behaviours during sleep with important medico-legal and safety implications
Sexsomnia, studied by Prof. Med. Carlos H. Schenck (University of Minnesota), a pioneer in sleep medicine, highlights how complex and sensitive these conditions can be.

🎥 Drive Awake is working on an upcoming documentary series bringing together interviews and scientific insights from the Forum, opening our eyes to the hidden world of sleep.

Discover more: https://driveawake.ch/it.html