Driving Under the Influence of Not Enough Sleep?
We know better than to get behind the wheel after several cocktails but don’t we all drive from time to time when we’re just dead tired? When I am in trial, I often come back to my office after court and spend a few hours getting ready for the next day at court. At 10 or 11 o’clock at night, when I finally make it home, if you were to ask me how many red lights I caught between my office and home, I bet more often than not, I couldn’t tell you.
An expert on driver fatigue told me that driver fatigue has the same affect on driving skills as driving after drinking alcohol. That’s pretty scary when you think about it. I wonder how many parents drive carpool under conditions of driver fatigue. How many sleepy drivers are on the road next to you every day?
Now granted, driver fatigue is more than just being tired. Fatigue means being tired to the point of weariness or exhaustion. However, missing as little as two hours of sleep can affect reaction time, memory, mood, alertness, concentration and overall mental functioning. Over a period of days and weeks, missing just one hour of sleep per night can result in what is called “sleep debt.” And a sleep debt can cause driver fatigue to such an extent that your brain actually shuts off and you go to sleep involuntarily. What’s worse is that driver fatigue affects driving long before a person realizes they are falling asleep at the wheel. Some people fall asleep multiple times while driving and don’t even know it.
Here are some interesting facts about driver fatigue:
- We all have a built-in body clock coordinating our daily cycles called circadian rhythms. Our clocks are programmed to make us feel very sleepy between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. and again between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. At these times of day, most people are at their worst, mentally and physically. In fact, statistics have shown that we are four times more likely to have a fatal crash if driving between 10 p.m. and dawn.
- People with lifestyles which include late night social activities, shift workers, and particularly night shift workers, commercial vehicle drivers, and people with sleep disorders have the greatest risk for driver fatigue.
- When driving long distances alone, the risk of a crash effectively doubles from the eighth to the tenth hour of driving, and doubles again from the tenth to the eleventh hour of driving.
- Taking a 20 minute power nap before a long trip in the car or to break up a long trip is probably the most effective way to combat driver fatigue. Caffeine, loud music, and fresh air are only temporary fixes, and not very good ones. When power-napping, it's important not to sleep any longer than 20 minutes because otherwise you may go into a deep sleep (which can be hard to wake up from), and you may feel groggy and disoriented when you wake up. Power nap safely by going somewhere well-lit where there are a lot of people. And lock the doors!
In my practice, I am constantly reminded that fatigue and driving are all too often a deadly combination. It is just too dangerous to ignore the warning signs of driver fatigue – yawning, poor concentration, tired eyes, restlessness, drowsiness, slow reactions, boredom and over-steering.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has an interesting driver fatigue quiz which you can take here.
You can also calculate your level of fatigue with this fatigue rating card.
