Drowsy Driving
By: Brad Stewart, Wellbeing Coordinator
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Summer travel and road trips are upon us. Take the time to make sure you are prepared and make it home safely. How many times have you been driving down the road cruising along to your music when all of a sudden you become mesmerized by the road? The lights become blurry, your body starts to goes numb and you feel your head drop like a ton of bricks. You waken yourself by the tires running over the groves on the side of the highway shaking the wheel until you get back to the center or find yourself in the ditch.
In a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 62 percent of all adults surveyed reported driving a car while feeling drowsy. When given this statistic, it's not hard to understand why every year nearly 100,000 reported crashes involving either drowsiness or fatigue. In fact, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly 1,500 fatalities and 71,000 injuries are sustained by fall-asleep crashes on an annual basis.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, the warning signs of fatigue are:
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Can't remember the last few miles driven
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Swerve from lane to lane or on the shoulder
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Yawning repeatedly
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Difficulty focusing or keeping eyes open
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Trouble keeping your head up
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Experience wandering or disconnected thoughts
Fatigue behind the wheel is a very real danger, even if you've never experienced it firsthand. The National Safety Council offers these tips for staying awake while you're driving:
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If you haven't received seven or eight hours of sleep the night before a trip, you are courting fatigue. Get enough rest. And don't start late in the day.
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If possible, don't drive alone. Passengers can take turns driving and also serve as conversation partners to keep you awake.
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Avoid long drives at night. The glare of lights, both on your dashboard and outside your car, increases the danger of highway hypnosis.
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Adjust your car's environment so that it helps keep you awake and alert. Keep the temperature cool. Turn the radio volume up, and switch stations frequently, but avoid soft, sleep-inducing music. Do not use cruise control; keep your body involved with the driving.
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Take frequent brakes. At least every two hours, stop at a gas station, restaurant or rest stop. Get out of the car, walk around, even jog or do calisthenics.
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If anti-fatigue measures fall short and you start noticing the danger signs of fatigue then there is only one solution, stop and sleep.
Safe driving demands your full attention. If you feel your eyelids getting heavy, then your next actions may not simply determine whether you'll stay awake. They might determine whether you'll stay alive.
References:
1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA): www.nhtsa.dot.gov
2. National Safety Council: http://www.nsc.org/
3. National Sleep Foundation: www.sleepfoundation.org