Blog

Sleep Deprivation and Driving Don’t Mix – Learn Just How Dangerous This Can Be

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a healthy adult should obtain at least 7 hours of sleep every night. According to the CDC, 35 percent of individuals in the United States receive less than 7 hours of sleep every night, and 12 percent get less than 5 hours. This is a major problem, given how sleep deprivation can increase the likelihood of an automobile collision.

How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Driving Performance?

Sleep deprivation can cause an accident even if you don’t fall asleep behind the wheel. Sleep deprivation can also affect your ability to drive by slowing response time. In the best-case situation, reacting to a possible traffic danger takes roughly 1.5 seconds. During this period, an automobile may move over 100 feet at highway speeds. You’ll go further and have a worse probability of avoiding the threat if you’re tired and take longer to react.

Sleepiness can make it more difficult to decide whether to swerve, apply the brakes, do both, or take other action in response to the road hazard—should you swerve, hit the brakes, do both, or take some other action? An accident might easily occur if you make the incorrect decision.

When you’re fatigued, it’s simple for your mind to wander. You might not even detect road dangers, or you might miss stop signs, traffic lights, and speed restrictions, among other things.

The Less Sleep You Get the Higher Your Danger Is

According to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study, the less sleep you get, the higher your chance of a car accident is. This is true not just if you don’t obtain the required 7 hours of sleep every night, but also if you sleep less than you normally do.

Drivers who slept 1 to 2 hours less than normal had 1.3 times the crash rate, 2 to 3 hours less than usual had 3 times the collision rate, 3 to 4 hours less than usual had 2.1 times the crash rate, and 4 or more hours less than usual increased the crash rate by more than 10 times the crash rate, according to the research.

Have you been hurt in any way?

If you have been injured in a car accident that you suspect was caused by a sleepy driver, you should speak with an expert car accident lawyer immediately soon. The Law Offices of Larry H. Parker is a fantastic choice for legal counsel. We have decades of experience and have successfully recovered billions of dollars for our customers. Call us right now at 800-333-0000 for a free first consultation with one of our attorneys.