Drive Awake · Awareness Behind the Wheel

How present are you, really?

Drive Awake is a Swiss project about sleepiness at the wheel. A documentary, a campaign and a platform: sleep science told by artists, with the sources right alongside.

UnderstandWhat happens in the body when alertness drops, and why it matters at the wheel. WatchThe documentary, the Monte Verità voices, an episode for every hour. Pull overWhen sleepiness sets in, what actually works.

It’s 21:28 in Switzerland. This hour’s episode →

The danger without a signal

At the roadside, sleepiness leaves no trace.

No breathalyser, nothing to record in the police report. That’s why so little is said about it, and that’s why Drive Awake exists.

up to 30 % of serious crashes in the evening and at night are linked to sleepiness.

Clinical estimate by Prof. Mauro Manconi, EOC Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland.

Drive Awakedriveawake.ch

validated tests measure a driver’s sleepiness at the roadside today.

2024

Since July 2024, new vehicles in Switzerland, as in the European Union, must have a system that warns the driver when it detects a drop in alertness.

EU Regulation 2019/2144 · FEDRO

Where it began: the Quinto case →

The campaign

The 24 Hours

Every hour of the day has its own threshold, and a short episode that tells its story.

The full series is online. On our channels, one episode a day, from 24 October to 16 November 2026.

the alertness curvethe blue: the hours that are online

00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Choose an hour. The highlighted ones are online.

Open the series →

Understand

Science on the driver’s side

The clock withinWhy alertness drops at three in the morning and at four in the afternoon. An interactive journey in seven stages. Tired or sleepy?Two words that seem to mean the same thing. At the wheel, they don’t. The open window doesn’t wake youFresh air and music: what the studies say. The road at nightAt three, the road isn’t empty: hourly traffic counts on the A2, from Lugano to the Gotthard.

Three ways of looking at the same danger: Sleep Science: the science Perspectives: law and culture The Threshold: the experience

The network: how the themes connect →

Watch

The documentary and the voices

The documentaryWorking title: ‘From Quinto to Monte Verità’. A film across science, law and the road. Conceived by Matteo Fieni, co-directed with Kevin Merz. In development.

The Monte Verità voicesEight voices from Monte Verità: sleep medicine, law, the road. On video, subtitled in four languages.

Raffaele Ferri

All the voices →

“You are doing a great public health service.”
Prof. Carlos H. Schenck, University of MinnesotaOne of the fathers of sleep medicine: with Mark Mahowald, he was the first to describe REM sleep behavior disorder, in 1986. He wrote this to us after his interview went online.

Pull over

Three things to do, with the sources

01Know the risky hours.
Sleep-related crashes have three peaks: around 2 and 6 in the morning, and around 4 in the afternoon.
Horne and Reyner 1995
02Take your sleepiness seriously.
You can usually feel it coming, and sleep is often closer than it seems. An open window and music won’t make it go away.
Reyner and Horne 1998, two simulator studies 1 2
03Pull over.
Two coffees, then ten to twenty minutes of sleep. Before you set off again, wait at least a quarter of an hour.
Reyner and Horne 1997 · Philip et al. 2006 · Trotti 2017

For your next journey

The circadian signalPick a departure time and see whether you’ll be driving through the critical hours. The surveyA ten-minute anonymous survey for the independent research institute intervista AG, with a prize draw for a CHF 200 Galaxus voucher. The newsletterWe only write when there’s something to say.

Who we work with

Science by our side, on the road together

With the Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Zurich, we’re following the search for an objective measure: one study detected signs of a sleepless night in saliva. It’s a laboratory result, not yet a roadside test. Scholz et al. 2026

Supported by the Swiss Road Safety Fund (FVS).

All partners →

About us

Drive Awake is a project by Matteo Fieni and Opening®, with Kevin Merz co-directing the documentary. We’re not scientists: we tell the story of science, and every scientific figure comes with its source.

Drive Awake gives voice to research and to professionals, and opens the conversation to the public.

Write to us → Press office → Public kit →