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If you choose to follow any links to the abstract and/or complete text of the item listed below, you will be leaving the Strategian Web site. If you wish to return to this page from the Web page you are sent to, please use the Back option of your browser. Jim Horne and Louise Reyner Vehicle Accidents Related to Sleep: A Review. (... in a review article that focuses on experiences in the United Kingdom, the authors state that falling asleep while driving accounts for a considerable proportion of vehicle accidents under monotonous driving conditions. In addition to these accidents being more common than generally perceived, sleep related vehicle accidents [SRVAs] ... are more liable to result in death and serious injury owing to the relatively high speed of the vehicles on impact. Many SRVAs occur while the drivers are at work, and night work makes drivers particularly vulnerable--such as ... those people driving home in the early morning after night shifts. The authors report that in the United Kingdom there are clear time of day effects for SRVAs, with peaks around 0200-0600 [2 a.m.-6 a.m.] and 1400-1600 [2 p.m.-4 p.m.]. This has been found for other countries [as well], such as the United States, Israel, Finland, and France. In addition, driver sleepiness is usually not associated with sleep disorders, but is found typically in healthy people who had had insufficient sleep or were driving at their circadian nadir [lowest point]. The authors conclude that vehicular accidents related to sleep can be reduced through a greater awareness by drivers and employers of the danger of driving while sleepy. Work and other time schedules should be planned so as to minimize exposure to prolonged driving under monotonous conditions during the most vulnerable times of the day and night. And, the best and most accurate information drivers have at their disposal about their state of sleepiness comes from their own self awareness of sleepiness. What many drivers fail to appreciate is that sleepiness portends sleep, which can come on more rapidly than they realize, especially if the driver has reached the more profound stage of fighting off sleep. It is at this point--where the driver may be opening the vehicle's window, turning up the radio, or moving around in the driving seat--that the driver should stop driving as soon as possible and take a break for at least 30 minutes, drink caffeinated coffee, and if feasible, take a brief nap. Other keywords and phrases -- circadian rhythm -- from the text of the abstract and the article) Occupational and Environmental Medicine Volume 56, Number 5 (May 1999): 289-294. How to find the above journal, magazine, or other publication? See Step 3: Locate of the Information Strategy for details. Questions? Please let me know. |
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