The Serious Side of Sleep

Many drivers know not to get behind the wheel after drinking alcohol, but sleepiness tends to be another story. Some drivers may not even realize how tired they actually are, and think they can drive safely. The statistics say otherwise:

• Driver fatigue accounts for at least 100,000 accidents per year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
• NHTSA reports sleepy drivers are responsible for 1,550 deaths and 71,000 injuries annually, not to mention $12.5 billion in monetary losses, as a result of auto accidents.
• A recent sleep poll showed that sleep — or lack thereof — caused or nearly caused car crashes for almost 11 million drivers.

In a recent survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 20 percent of respondents admitted they had fallen asleep at the wheel at least once during the previous year.

In fact, when it comes to driving, too little sleep and too much alcohol have a lot in common — both can impair judgment and vision, slow reaction time, interfere with coordination, make you feel moody or aggressive, and diminish alertness. The foundation has become so concerned about this issue that it launched a Web site raise awareness about safe driving in regards to sleep deprivation.

Don’t Hit the Road With Sleep Apnea

With 70 million people in the United States dealing with some type of sleep disorder, drowsy driving is a huge problem. Of those people, at least 12 million have a condition known as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

People with obstructive sleep apnea experience brief pauses in breathing while they sleep. These pauses may last for seconds or minutes and can occur five to 100 times an hour. The condition often causes snoring as the air fights to travel through the nose, mouth, or throat. When the blood oxygen level becomes too low, the brain arouses the sleeper just enough to take a breath, but not enough to wake up, which is why people with sleep apnea often don’t understand why they feel groggy in the morning. In fact, snoring and daytime sleepiness are the two main symptoms of OSA.

There is “a huge link between untreated sleep apnea and falling asleep at the wheel,” warns Helene Emsellem, MD, director of the Center for Sleep and Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Md., and associate clinical professor of neurology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The main culprit seems to be the fluctuations in blood oxygen levels and repeated arousals that result from the on-and-off breathing that is the hallmark of this disorder. Dr. Emsellem notes that people with certain lung diseases, such as emphysema, also feel sleepy during the day, because they may deal with low blood oxygen, too. Good oxygenation is essential for staying alert and for safe driving, she explains.

Northwestern Medicine neurologist Hrayr Attarian, MD, believes that “sleep problems are widespread and on the rise, yet many people dismiss the issue and don’t realize the consequences that can result,” adding that “even one hour of lost sleep can take a toll on one’s health and many individuals experience grogginess, difficulty focusing, irritability and more seriously, drowsy driving.”

Attarian further explains the consequences of drowsy driving saying that “statistically in the days following Daylight Savings there are more car accidents due to the lack of alertness. He recommends that people should go the bed sooner during the weekends in order to help the biological clock adjust accordingly.