Are you getting enough sleep?

  • Published
  • By Rod Krause
  • 5 BW Ground Safety Manager
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  Airmen in Air Force Global Strike Command may not be getting enough sleep. Apparently a lot of people aren't, and the result is dangerous. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes annually involve drowsiness and/or fatigue as a principal causal factor.

Those crashes result in an estimated 1,500 fatalities and 71,000 injuries each year, and an annual monetary loss of approximately $12.5 billion.

Referred to as the "silent killer" because it is so often overlooked as the cause of an accident, drowsy driving's full effect is not yet known because reporting is imprecise, police are not trained to detect sleep-related crashes and there is no Breathalyzer-like test to determine whether someone was driving while dangerously drowsy.

"Driving while drowsy or fatigued is something that most drivers have experienced or will experience at some point," said Greg Ciezadlo, vice president, Farmers Insurance, yawning. "We need to raise the awareness of this problem and educate drivers on how to prevent it from happening."

According to the Farmers survey, almost three times as many men, 15.9 percent, as women, 5.8 percent, said they had fallen asleep while driving. Those ages 55 to 64 had the highest percentage of any age group surveyed 13.7 percent.

Nearly twice as many of those surveyed said they had momentarily dozed while driving. In addition, while 53.4 percent of all surveyed said they have felt drowsy while driving, 41.2 percent claimed they kept driving.

The American Institute of Chartered Personal Casualty Underwriters insists stay awake behaviors such as exercising, turning on the radio, and opening the windows are misconceptions and have not been proven to prevent sleep attacks.

Experts who have looked at the problem say the only safe way to combat drowsy driving is to pull over to a safe parking spot.

"With drowsy driving on the increase, Mr. Ciezadlo said, "it is increasingly important drivers do all they can to prevent this problem, including getting sufficient sleep and avoiding alcohol."