Distinct features in heart rate signals during the driver’s wake and sleep states could provide an initiative for the development of a safe driving systems such as drowsiness detecting sensor in a smart wheel. We measured ECG from health subjects (23.5±2.5 in age) during the wake and drowsiness states. The proposed method is able to detect R waves and R-R interval calculation in the ECG even when the signal includes in abnormal signals. Heart rate variability(HRV) was investigated for the time domain and frequency domains. The STD HR(0.029), NN50(0.044) and VLF power(0.0018) of the RR interval series of the subjects were significantly different from those of the control group(p < 0.05). In conclusion, there are changes in heart rate from wake to drowsiness that are potentially to be detected. The results in our study could be useful for the development of drowsiness detection sensors for effective real-time monitoring.