What Is Drowsy Driving?Īccording to the NHTSA, drowsy driving is “a profound impairment that mimics alcohol-impaired driving,” and can lead to falling asleep behind the wheel. Below, you'll learn how a low sleep debt and working with your circadian rhythm are the primary safeguards in deflecting sleepiness at the wheel. Rosekind's robust background in fatigue countermeasures, this has translated to increased awareness of sleep deprivation and driving.Īside from governmental initiatives, there are things you can do to thwart drowsy driving. By late 2016, the NHTSA had developed and carried out multiple initiatives under the Drowsy Driving Research and Program Plan.

Dement’s) led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under the Obama administration to carve a new direction for lowering the incident rate of drowsy driving crashes. Sleep and fatigue expert Mark Rosekind (incidentally a sleep science advisor at Rise Science and a former student of Dr. Thankfully, work is starting to be done on tackling the issue of drowsy driving. William Dement (one of the pioneers of sleep medicine) aptly put it, 'Drowsiness is red alert.' With the ever-increasing trend of short sleeping in the United States, it's obvious how prevalent - and insidious - fatigue-related driving is. The problem is, only a tiny bit of sleep deprivation is enough to incite sluggish steering or falling asleep while driving. While there are tons of governmental campaigns against the first three, not much attention has been given to drowsy driving (until recently). Five minutes later, though, you can't help but admit you're on the brink of falling asleep while driving.įrom a young age, we've been forewarned against the 4 Ds of driving: drunk, drugged, distracted, and drowsy.

You try to keep yourself awake by rubbing your bleary eyes and blasting the air conditioning. Your car stops at a red light, and your previous late night makes itself known as you yawn sleepily.

Best way to stay awake while driving