Accident risk doubles with sleep deprivation
People who forgo just one to two hours of sleep a night double their risk of accidents. This has been discovered by a new study from the USA.
Just one to two hours of sleep deprivation per night is enough to double the risk of a traffic accident the following day. This is the conclusion of a recent survey conducted by the U.S. AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Sacrifice sleep
"You can't just skip sleep and then still expect to function safely behind the wheel," explains David Yang of the AAA Foundation. "Our new study shows that a driver who has slept less than five hours has a similar crash risk as a drunk driver." According to the study, just a few hours of sleep deprivation is enough to become a traffic risk.
"There will probably be a change in sleep times due to the constant accessibility of our means of communication. It is possible that sleep times will increasingly be divided up so that people do not allow themselves around eight hours in one go, but instead divide this time up. Presumably, young people are more willing to sacrifice sleep time in order to "not miss anything," because they might want to be informed quickly and respond right away. In the long run, however, this is detrimental to their performance, even if they think they can still compensate for a lot of things," explains ÖAMTC traffic psychologist Marion Seidenberger told pressetext.
Although about 97 percent of drivers surveyed in another category of the survey said they find it irresponsible to drive while overtired, three percent admitted to moving a car while drowsy at least once in the past month. "Organizing a healthy work/life balance is difficult, and far too often we sacrifice our sleep to do it," said Jake Nelson of the AAA Foundation.
Clear symptoms
Indications of overtiredness include problems keeping the eyes open, not staying in the lane, and difficulty remembering the last few minutes of driving. The AAA Foundation therefore advises avoiding heavy food before long drives, taking turns driving with a partner, taking a short break every two hours and avoiding certain medications.
"The method of recording the movements of the eyelid with the aid of infrared light was considered very promising for a long time, because the blink frequency increases with increasing fatigue. Disadvantage: This sensor technology is susceptible to interference. Main problem: The systems confuse the driver by training him to ignore his own feeling of tiredness. And: Many drivers don't let a computer system tell them to take breaks," explains Klaus Robatsch of the Board of Trustees for Road Safety in a press text interview.
Source: Press release
