Drowsy Driving
Auto Accident Attorneys

Drowsy driving is a serious problem that leads to thousands of automobile crashes each year. These highway accidents lead to serious personal injury and traffic fatalities, destroying families along the way.

BIOLOGY OF HUMAN SLEEP AND SLEEPINESS

Everyone needs adequate sleep. Our bodies need it to recover from one day into the next.

The loss of one night's sleep can lead to extreme short-term sleepiness, while habitually restricting sleep by 1 or 2 hours a night can lead to chronic sleepiness. Sleeping is the most effective way to reduce sleepiness.

Sleepiness causes auto crashes because it impairs performance and can ultimately lead to the inability to resist falling asleep at the wheel. Critical aspects of driving impairment associated with sleepiness are reaction time, vigilance, attention, and information processing.

DROWSY DRIVING CRASH CHARACTERISTICS

Subjective and objective tools are available to approximate or detect sleepiness. However, unlike the situation with alcohol-related crashes, no blood, breath, or other measurable test is currently available to quantify levels of sleepiness at the crash site. Although current understanding largely comes from inferential evidence, a typical crash related to sleepiness has the following characteristics:

• The problem occurs during late night or early morning or mid afternoon.
• The crash is likely to be serious.
• A single vehicle leaves the roadway.
• The crash occurs on a high-speed road.
• The driver does not attempt to avoid a crash.
• The driver is alone in the vehicle.

RISKS FOR DROWSY-DRIVING CRASHES

Although evidence is limited or inferential, chronic predisposing factors and acute situational factors recognized as increasing the risk of drowsy driving and related crashes include:

• Sleep loss.
• Driving patterns, including driving between midnight and 6 a.m.; driving a substantial number of miles each year and/or a substantial number of hours each day; driving in the mid afternoon hours (especially for older persons); and driving for longer times without taking a break.
• Use of sedating medications, especially prescribed antidepressants and some antihistamines
• Untreated or unrecognized sleep disorders, especially sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) and narcolepsy.
• Consumption of alcohol, which interacts with and adds to drowsiness.
• These factors have cumulative effects; a combination of them substantially increases crash risk.

POPULATION GROUPS AT HIGHEST RISK

Although no driver is immune, the following three population groups are at highest risk, based on evidence from crash reports and self-reports of sleep behavior and driving performance.

Young people (ages 16 to 29), especially males.

Shift workers whose sleep is disrupted by working at night or working long or irregular hours.

People with untreated sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) and narcolepsy.

SAFETY TIPS TO COMBAT
Drowsy Driving

To prevent drowsy driving and its consequences, Americans need information on approaches that may reduce their risks. The public needs to be informed of the benefits of specific behaviors that help avoid becoming drowsy while driving.

Helpful behaviors include:

1. planning to get sufficient sleep
2. not drinking even small amounts of alcohol when sleepy
3. limiting driving between midnight and 6 a.m.

As soon as a driver becomes sleepy, the key behavioral step is to stop driving-for example, letting a passenger drive or stopping to sleep before continuing a trip.

Two preventive measures can make a short-term difference in driving alertness:

1. taking a short nap (about 15 to 20 minutes) and
2. consuming caffeine equivalent to two cups of coffee.

The effectiveness of any other steps to improve alertness when sleepy, such as opening a window or listening to the radio, has not been demonstrated.

SLEEPINESS IMPAIRS PERFORMANCE

Sleepiness leads to crashes because it impairs elements of human performance that are critical to safe driving. Relevant impairments identified in laboratory and in-vehicle studies include:

• Slower reaction time. Sleepiness reduces optimum reaction times, and moderately sleepy people can have a performance- impairing increase in reaction time that will hinder stopping in time to avoid a collision.
• • Even small decrements in reaction time can have a profound effect on crash risk, particularly at high speeds.
    Reduced vigilance. Performance on attention- based tasks declines with sleepiness, including increased periods of non responding or delayed responding.
• Deficits in information processing. Processing and integrating information takes longer, the accuracy of short-term memory decreases, and performance declines.
• Often, people use physical activity and dietary stimulants to cope with sleep loss, masking their level of sleepiness.
• • However, when they sit still, perform repetitive tasks (such as driving long distances), get bored, or let down their coping defenses, sleep comes quickly.

THE CAUSES OF SLEEPINESS/DROWSY DRIVING

Although alcohol and some medications can independently induce sleepiness, the primary causes of sleepiness and drowsy driving in people without sleep disorders are sleep restriction and sleep fragmentation.

Sleep restriction or loss. Short duration of sleep appears to have the greatest negative effects on alertness. Although the need for sleep varies among individuals, sleeping 8 hours per 24-hour period is common, and 7 to 9 hours is needed to optimize performance.

Experimental evidence shows that sleeping less than 4 consolidated hours per night impairs performance on vigilance tasks. Acute sleep loss, even the loss of one night of sleep, results in extreme sleepiness . The effects of sleep loss are cumulative.

Regularly losing 1 to 2 hours of sleep a night can create a "sleep debt" and lead to chronic sleepiness over time. Only sleep can reduce sleep debt. In a recent study, people whose sleep was restricted to 4 to 5 hours per night for 1 week needed two full nights of sleep to recover vigilance, performance, and normal mood.

Job-Related Sleep Restriction. Contemporary society functions 24 hours a day. Economic pressures and the global economy place increased demands on many people to work instead of sleep, and work hours and demands are a major cause of sleep loss.

Personal Demands and Lifestyle Choices. Many Americans do not get the sleep they need because their schedules do not allow adequate time for it. Juggling work and family responsibilities, combining work and education, and making time for enjoyable pastimes often leave little time left over for sleeping. Many Americans are unaware of the negative effects this choice can have on health and functioning.

Sleep fragmentation. Sleep is an active process, and adequate time in bed does not mean that adequate sleep has been obtained. Sleep disruption and fragmentation cause inadequate sleep and can negatively affect functioning. Similar to sleep restriction, sleep fragmentation can have internal and external causes.

Injured in an Auto Accident?
Was it Caused by a Drowsy Driver?
Contact the Harris Law Firm for an Experienced
Personal Injury Lawyer

If you or a loved one has suffered serious personal injury as the result of an auto accident, car accident, or other traffic accident because of a sleepy driver or drowsy driver, then call the Harris Law Firm PA for a personal injury lawyer, personal injury attorney, auto accident lawyer, today.

We will come to you in Arcadia, Alva, Bonita Springs, Bradenton, Cape Coral, Clewiston, Collier, DeSoto County, Englewood, Felda, Fort Myers, Ft Myers, Glades County, Golden Gate, Hendry County, Highlands County, Immokalee, La Belle, Labelle, Lake Placid, Lee County, Lehigh, Lehigh Acres, Manatee County, Moore Haven, Naples, Nokomis, North Port, Osprey, Palmdale, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Sarasota, Sebring, Venice.

At the Harris Law Firm PA, we provide aggressive, prompt, and ethical advocacy on behalf of individuals and families who have suffered serious personal injury, accident injury, and wrongful death. Contact us today.

Because Principle Does Matter. ^SM
Vision. Values. Justice. ^SM 

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