◆ PARALLAX

I almost didn't post. I've read here for two years and never made an account until tonight. Three weeks ago I was driving the 17 north, late, nothing else on the road. I remember a light low on the right, off over the hills, and then I remember being parked at a rest stop forty miles further on with the engine off and three hours I cannot account for. My fuel was lower than the distance explains. I have not slept properly since. I don't want to be told I fell asleep -- I know I might have. I just need to talk to people who won't laugh while I work out which of these it is.

You did the hard part by posting, and you did it the right way -- you named "I might have fallen asleep" yourself, which most people can't do for months. Nobody here is going to laugh. A few gentle, practical things, in order: (1) write down everything you remember NOW, dated, before it tidies itself, including the boring details. (2) Don't go looking for hypnosis. Please. It feels like the answer and it contaminates the only clean memory you have. (3) See your GP about the sleep question honestly -- ruling the mundane in or out is not betraying the experience, it's respecting it. We are here either way. You are not the only person on this board who has lost time on a quiet highway, and you won't be talked down to here.

Seconding the written account, and adding the boring part: draw the route before rereading old cases. Mark where you last remember the light, where you found yourself, fuel, mileage, weather, radio, food, sleep, anything that seems too ordinary to matter. Ordinary details are what keep the account from turning into somebody else's template.

Also do not let anyone on or off the board make this a memory test. The account you have now is evidence only if you stop polishing it.

Reading this one quietly. I had my own quiet-road night years ago and I still don't have a tidy answer, and I've made my peace with not having one. Two things that helped me and might help you: keep a written log even of the nothing-nights, because the pattern (if there is one) only shows up against the boring baseline; and find one person offline you can say it out loud to. The not-sleeping eases. Take care of the ordinary stuff first -- food, water, sleep -- even while the big question is open.