While drunk driving and other forms of inhibited driving are usually the most discussed and warned about, there is another form of inhibited driving that is just as dangerous: driving while tired.
Many of us have to drive to work early in the morning when we feel tired. And while that can be dangerous if you have been skipping out on sleep lately, that is not necessarily the tired driving that regularly causes accidents. When you wake up and go to work in the morning after a decent night’s sleep, you may feel tired driving to work, but the blue light that the sun gives off in the morning actually makes us more alert. That is why once you finally arrive at work or school, you feel more awake and ready to start the day.
The type of groggy, drowsy driving that is dangerous and accounts for a significant amount of car accidents every year is the kind of tired you feel after a 12-hour shift. Or — three 12-hour shifts in a row. It could also be when you are driving for fifteen hours straight to your vacation or holiday event.
Whatever the reason for your exhaustion, almost 90,000 car crashes are caused by drowsy driving each year. Over half of those usually result in some sort of injury and almost 1000 of those result in the death of a driver or passenger.
Driving drowsy does not simply make you a worse driver. It keeps you from being able to pay attention to the road the way you need to and slows your reaction time. An adequate amount of reaction time is necessary for safe driving. Even when you aren’t tired, you need time to react to events going on around you. Driving drowsy takes that away and keeps you from noticing events you need to be reacting or adjusting to. Like alcohol and substances, drowsiness can also inhibit your ability to make good and safe decisions while you are driving. You may be unable to decide when it is safe to turn right at a red or turn left across multiple lanes. You are also unlikely to have the sense you need to pull over and take a rest.
It’s not uncommon to drive when we are not feeling our absolute most alert. Driving because you got a slightly less amount of sleep the night before is not necessarily causing you to skip out on driving completely, but if you feel like you would be an unsafe driver in your current condition, then you probably should.
Signs of drowsy driving include:
- Drifting from your lane into another or the shoulder
- Having to yawn or blink frequently
- Miss your exit, turns,
- Forgetting basic road rules (stop at a red light, green at go, etc.)
Twenty percent of people will admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel. It’s not incredibly uncommon, but it’s incredibly dangerous. It has the power you inhibit your driving and idea of safety just as much as alcohol and other substances. If you have not been sleeping, or feel like driving in your current condition is not the best choice, pullover or ask somebody else in the car to take a turn.
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