Drive Awake · The sections
Three sections, one vector
Three editorial sections, three ways of looking at the same danger: Sleep Science measures it, Perspectives judges it, La Soglia inhabits its threshold.
Awareness Behind the Wheel
A question about sleep, attention and what happens when we're not fully there. Drive Awake is a Swiss project on sleepiness at the wheel: a documentary, a campaign and an editorial platform, with in-depth research and verified sources. We look at the same danger from several sides - science, law, culture, experience - as artists using science, and we tell it through human stories.
Between waking and sleep there is a threshold.
Behind the wheel, that threshold matters. Drive Awake makes it visible, to drive and live more awake.
Up to 30% of serious road accidents, in the evening and night hours, are linked to sleepiness.Prof. Mauro Manconi, EOC
Drive Awake is a Swiss initiative (2024-2028+) addressing sleepiness at the wheel through scientifically grounded awareness. At the centre is the platform: here the problem becomes a continuous flow of knowledge, and from here the documentary and the campaign take form. Not three parallel pillars - a source and its forms.
A platform that contains two forms.
Every topic is a node. The links cross the sections.
Living platform · 40 entries online · updated 19.07.2026
Goal: Reduce road accidents caused by sleepiness through scientific understanding and public awareness.
Drive Awake · The sections
Three editorial sections, three ways of looking at the same danger: Sleep Science measures it, Perspectives judges it, La Soglia inhabits its threshold.
Drive Awake · The platform
The doors of the vector: whichever you choose, it leads back to the heart of the project.
Science
The science of sleep and alertness, disorder by disorder, with sources.
ActivePerspectives
Three lenses on the same core: technology and driving, law, culture.
First entry onlineThe Threshold
Between waking and sleep: science, culture and myth, brought back to the road.
ActiveOpera
The documentary and the campaign: one work in two forms.
In progressCommunications
Updates, newsletter and what we publish.
ActivePartners
Those who walk with us: science, road safety, institutions.
ActiveThe signal
The road's circadian signal: see when the threshold drops - and the app to carry it.
Tool + appThe network
Not a menu, a map: follow the thread from one theme to the next.
ActiveAbout and Contact stay within reach, at the top in the menu.
Drowsiness, unlike alcohol, leaves no trace at a crash scene. There is no breathalyzer. No standard field test. No number on a report. But the evidence is already there - if you know how to read it. No skid marks before impact. Zero braking input recorded in the black box. Police and forensic experts have learned to recognize these signatures. They just cannot prove it in court. Yet.
No test. No prosecution. No accountability. Not yet.
What is changing
Three developments are converging. The salivary biomarker study published by IRM Zürich in June 2026 identifies 12 molecular markers of sleepiness, in a small first study - a roadside test is a plausible prospect, still to be validated in real driving. Since July 2024, EU Regulation 2019/2144 mandates that all new vehicles sold in Europe include a Driver Drowsiness and Attention Warning (DDAW) system - the automotive industry is already part of the solution. And forensic reconstruction is advancing: EDR black box data, crash dynamics and the absence of braking are increasingly accepted as evidence in court. Drive Awake exists at the intersection of these three fronts.
Source: EOC Neurocentro (Prof. Manconi), IRM Zürich (Michael Scholz, PhD candidate), Swiss Federal Roads Office, European Sleep Research Society, EU Regulation 2019/2144.
Drive Awake does not only describe the problem. It generates three answers - and one holds them together.
The story. The voices, the places, the accounts of those who crossed the threshold.
Action in the field. Bringing awareness to where people drive, where they decide.
Not one answer among three: the vector that contains them and keeps them alive.
The documentary and the campaign are content. The platform is the circulatory system that connects them and keeps them alive.
The long story of the documentary, the daily presence of the campaign. The same gaze.
A project on sleep, attention and what we miss - in production now
Drive Awake is in active production across Switzerland and Europe. The project follows scientists, forensic experts, road safety professionals and individuals navigating the same invisible risk - on the road and in everyday life.
The format is open. Feature documentary, episodic series, television - we're not attached to a screen. The story will find its format. What matters is the investigation.
Co-directed by Matteo Fieni and Kevin Merz. In production since 2025. Release window: late 2027 - early 2028.
A progressive multilingual campaign translating sleep science into public awareness, social dialogue and safer mobility.
Building a community before the full campaign. Multilingual content on Instagram and LinkedIn - calm, regular, credible.
A structured campaign in three stages - community building, content activation and documentary support. Content grows in depth and frequency through 2026-2027.
Each platform carries content calibrated to its audience. Language follows objective - cultural adaptation is part of the editorial process.
The campaign is currently in a testing and refinement phase. Over the coming months we are running field tests, collecting feedback and calibrating the approach. The full launch is planned for Q4 2026 - nothing here is final, and your feedback is part of the process.
From here, the project speaks in its own voice. Updates, letters and statements - no noise, only what matters. The platform is the home; the newsletter only points back here.
Our first communication since the restart - science, documentary and prevention, in four languages.
A column on presence, sleep and attention - between science, cultures and storytelling. Soon.
On July 26, 2016, on the A2 in Leventina, a driver with severe sleep apnoea he had no knowledge of rear-ended a stationary car. An entire German family died. He was acquitted: no test could have identified the risk before the accident. Ten years later, an IRM Zürich study points to a possible answer in saliva.
Researchers at IRM Zürich (University of Zurich) have identified a "sleepiness fingerprint" in saliva - a set of metabolites that change measurably after 24 hours without sleep or four nights of restricted sleep. The study uses machine learning on oral fluid metabolomics with just 12 molecular markers, in a small first study.
Drive Awake is a partner of this research programme, supported by FVS.
Drive Awake relaunches with a fully renewed platform: multilingual architecture (IT/FR/DE/EN), a new scientific editorial section - Sleep Science - documenting six sleep disorders and their link to road safety, and a redesigned awareness campaign. The entire digital production is curated by Opening®.
Drive Awake social media campaign launching - multilingual content across Instagram and LinkedIn (DE/FR/IT/EN).
Michael Scholz, PhD candidate (IRM Zürich) coordinated a full visit to the IRM Zürich laboratories at the University of Zurich. Drive Awake documented the facilities - forensic medicine, sleep research, metabolomics - deepening the scientific partnership at the core of the project.
Drive Awake begins collaboration with Dotwords - a digital communication agency supporting the social media campaign across all four language channels.
Drive Awake NAS system operational. The shared storage infrastructure is now active with scientific partners, enabling secure collaboration on documentary material and research data.
World Sleep Forum, Monte Verità - documentary interviews with leading sleep researchers on circadian biology and driving risk.
IRM Zürich partnership established - research collaboration on sleep biomarkers and forensic applications begins.
Our scientific partner on the objective measurement of sleepiness: a published saliva study, a long-standing traffic-medicine division, the bridge between science and real driving.
Drive Awake is part of an official evaluation process conducted by intervista AG, Switzerland's leading research institute. The survey takes about 10 minutes and helps measure public awareness around sleepiness, sleep and road safety.
intervista AG is conducting an official study on drowsy driving awareness. Your 10 minutes directly strengthen the scientific foundation of Drive Awake.
DE
Deine Meinung zählt!
Have you ever driven when you were sleepy? Give 10 minutes and help us save lives.
FR
Ton avis compte !
T'es-tu déjà retrouvé somnolent au volant ? Consacre 10 minutes et aide-nous à sauver des vies.
IT
La tua opinione conta!
Ti è mai capitato di metterti al volante quando eri assonnato? Dedica 10 minuti e aiutaci a salvare vite umane.
Scan to participate
The scientific, institutional and production network that walks with Drive Awake.
Drive Awake 2.0 is the enhanced infrastructure vision - a structured system for producing, transforming and distributing sleep science content across platforms. From documentary footage to platform assets, from research partnerships to public awareness.
01
Documentary, research, field experience.
02
Editing, Generative Center, multilingual adaptation.
03
Social, platform, partners, institutions.
Editorial direction stays central and undelegated.
Drive Awake was born in Switzerland, in three languages - Italian, French, German. But the Gotthard A2 is a European corridor: sleepiness at the wheel has no nationality. English was added out of necessity, not concession.
We maintain all four languages for as long as we can. If you'd like to support translation or localisation in your language, write to us.
Drive Awake is a project by Matteo Fieni and Opening®. We're not scientists - we're a production house who got drawn into a question about sleep, attention and what happens on the road when we're not really there. Kevin Merz co-directs the documentary.
Matteo Fieni
Director & Producer
Swiss Photo Award 2012. Conceived Drive Awake through Opening®. Leads creative, editorial and strategic direction.
matteofieni.ch ↗
Kevin Merz
Documentary Co-Director
Swiss filmmaker. Sundance, MoMA, Locarno Piazza Grande. Co-directs the Drive Awake documentary.
kevinmerz.info ↗
Opening®
Production house
20+ years of visual production. Creative and operational framework of Drive Awake.
opening.ch ↗A sun, a wheel, a steering wheel, a body clock: the mark is all of these at once.
Why it breathes. The mark is the rhythm of human vigilance made visible: the spokes swell by day (blue, wakefulness) and thin at night (orange, the threshold). On the page the breathing follows the rhythm of the day - the same one that decides when we are truly present at the wheel, and when we are not.
Drive Awake is the rhythm of human vigilance made visible. To be awake is to be conscious, and we are truly conscious when we sleep well. A rested mind drives better, on the road and in life.
The Sleep Science section is expanding. The documentary is in production. Stay in the loop.
Documentary progress, platform launch, scientific findings, campaign updates. No noise - just what matters.
We send occasional updates only. No spam.
Thank you - your email client will open. Just send the message to confirm.
How we communicate
The visual and human process.
drive.awake ↗The institutional and scientific dialogue.
Drive Awake ↗The multilingual community.
drive.awake.ch.en ↗Clips and material from the documentary.
@Drive_Awake ↗