No matter how much you love your job, having to commute a long distance can have an effect on your health. There is nothing more annoying than getting stuck in traffic and a bad commute can have you stressed out even before you’ve entered your workplace. Sometimes the drive might have been pleasant enough and the struggle lies in having to sit in the same position for a long period of time. This can be a challenge for people, both mentally and physically.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot we can do about the monotony of commuting to work, other than trying to find a good radio station, podcast or playlist to listen to. You can’t control the traffic but there are a few things that you can do to help you stay healthy and stress free on your commute to work.

Mental Discomfort

If you get a good night’s sleep at home, it means that you’ll wake up feeling wide awake, refreshed and ready to tackle the day ahead. If you’re tired, however, you’ll become stressed more easily on your drive to work. You’ll get annoyed easily by other drivers for the smallest things for example.

If you find yourself driving in a bad mood, it is more likely that you might cause an accident out of frustration. For example, you might decide to overtake a slower driver when it is unsafe to do so. People make rash decisions like this all the time, that’s why you need to make sure that you have good car insurance from somewhere like One Sure Insurance. By getting enough sleep though, you should be able to avoid this problem.

It’s not just about getting plenty of sleep, another way in which how you sleep can help is by simply going to bed earlier so that you can leave earlier in the morning. By doing this you might miss the traffic on your drive to work and you won’t be as worried about being late which is one of the main causes of driver stress. You might also find that if you can avoid the traffic, you’ll have a quicker journey too.

Physical Discomfort

Driving a long distance can become very physically uncomfortable as you have to sit still in the same position the entire time. This can result in an aching back, neck strain and stiff legs. Most people will experience this sort of thing occasionally when they drive however, for the people who have to drive for long periods twice a day this might become a more serious issue in the future.

If you have the time, it might be a good idea to stop driving every 30 minutes and stretch, or just walk around for a little bit. By breaking your journey up like this you will feel much more comfortable when you continue driving. This is something you should also consider doing in your everyday life. It’s a good idea to get up and walk around every hour, particularly if you are sitting down all day.

Getting your posture correct will also stop you feeling stiff or aching after driving for a long time. If you find yourself slumping in your car seat rather than sitting up, you might want to move your car seat around. Getting the right posture will help you feel more comfortable whilst driving and this should help remove the stress from your drive as you are no longer sore and uncomfortable.

For more commuting tips, take a look at middleme.net.