Failure to get a good night’s sleep can be detrimental to your health in many ways, but none so immediate as falling asleep behind the wheel. “Drowsy driving is like driving drunk: reaction times, attentiveness, alertness and decision-making skills are all impaired,” according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
Prioritize Your Sleep to Avoid Drowsy Driving
Results of a study by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety showed “an estimated 17.6% of all fatal crashes in years 2017-2021 involved a drowsy driver.” Drowsy driving is as likely to cause an accident as drunk driving.
1. What Qualifies as Drowsy Driving?
Fatigue and drowsiness are not the same thing. Fatigue is due to prolonged physical or mental work and can occur even when you’ve had adequate sleep. Drowsiness occurs when your body needs to sleep. Many adults don’t get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep a night to feel well rested, which can cause them “to be drowsy almost every time they get behind the wheel of a car.”
Unlike drunk driving, drowsy driving is more difficult to identify. There is no simple breath test for drowsy driving. Due to the rush of adrenaline that jolts them awake after a crash, observers might not realize the driver fell asleep before the crash. That’s why it’s likely the numbers of crashes caused by drowsy driving are undercounted.
National Sleep Foundation has identified eight warning signs of drowsy driving that you can watch for:
a. Difficulty focusing including frequent blinking or heavy eyelids
b. Daydreams or disconnected thoughts
c. Trouble remembering the last few miles driven
d. Missing an exit or ignoring traffic signs
e. Yawning or rubbing your eyes
f. Nodding off
g. Drifting, tailgating, or driving into the shoulder of the road
h. Feeling restless or irritable, including being aggravated by common annoyances
2. Can a Single Night of Insufficient Sleep Affect My Driving?
The answer is yes. “Sleep deprivation slows reactions to stimuli, decreases accuracy of responses, and leads to long lapses in attention,” according to the background of a study by AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety of acute sleep deprivation and the risk of motor vehicle crash involvement. The study suggests that those “who have slept for less than 4 or 5 hours in the past 24 hours are likely to be substantially impaired.” Having slept only 4-5 hours creates a crash risk similar to what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates as the crash risk for those driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) equal to or slightly over the legal limit of 0.08. Sleeping less than 4 hours increases the crash risk to that associated with a BAC of roughly 0.12-0.15.
A survey by National Sleep Foundation in preparation for its 2024 Drowsy Driving Prevention Week Report found Americans are much less likely to change or cancel plans to avoid impaired driving due to insufficient sleep than they are to avoid driving drunk. Americans are also less likely to suggest a driver who has not had enough sleep not get behind the wheel than they are to suggest the same to someone who has had a few drinks. The National Sleep Foundation survey concluded “the cultural importance of preventing drunk driving has not sufficiently generalized to other high-risk forms of impairment like drowsy driving.”
3. When Do Most Drowsy-Driving Accidents Happen?
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there are some common factors they’ve found among drowsy driving crashes: they occur between midnight and 6 AM or in the late afternoon, when “people experience dips in their circadian rhythm”; they involve only a single driver, with no passengers, who runs off the road at a high rate of speed; and they frequently occur on rural roads and highways. “The greatest number of fatal drowsy driving crashes occurred between 11:00 PM and 2:59 AM; the percentage of drivers who were drowsy was highest among those who crashed between the hours of 3:00 AM and 6:59 AM.”
4. Who Is Most Likely to Drive Drowsy?
Most of us have driven while drowsy based upon what qualifies as drowsy driving. National Safety Council cites the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report finding “1 in 25 adult drivers report having fallen asleep while driving.” That number includes only those who both realized they had fallen asleep and were willing to report it.
Infographic from National Safety Council Website
According to a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety review of crash data from 2017-2021, “The proportion of fatal-crash-involved drivers who were drowsy was greatest among drivers aged 16-20; however, the largest number of drowsy drivers in crashes were aged 21-34.” Men were more likely to be drowsy and “accounted for the vast majority of drowsy drivers involved in fatal crashes.” Shift workers and business travelers also face an increased risk of drowsy driving due to sleep patterns that conflict with the body’s natural pattern of sleeping and waking. Drowsy driving is not limited to these groups. We all need to address the challenges of getting sufficient sleep and avoid driving when we have not.
5. How Can I Avoid Driving Drowsy?
To avoid driving drowsy, NHTSA recommends:
a. Getting sufficient sleep daily
b. Getting a good night’s sleep the night before a long car trip
c. Telling your teens to wait to drive until they’re well-rested
d. Avoiding drinking alcohol before driving
e. Checking medication labels to determine whether the medications could make you drowsy. If so, don’t drive while using them. The FDA offers a list of medications that could make driving dangerous.
f. Avoiding driving during peak sleepiness periods when drowsiness is most likely (midnight – 6 AM and late afternoon)
Drinking coffee or caffeinated beverages is not enough. You may feel alert; however, if you’re sleep-deprived, “you still may have ‘micro sleeps’ or brief losses of consciousness that can last for four or five seconds.” That’s enough time to cause a crash.
Drowsy driving accidents are preventable. Get sufficient, quality sleep to avoid drowsy driving accidents.
-Team at down etc
Read more:
5 Ways Lack of Sleep Can Affect Your Mental Health
Is Poor Sleep Causing You to Gain Weight?
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