It is summer and people are driving more. Those destinations to soccer and baseball games or a weekend trip to the lake can become a blur or worse, a highway statistic.
According to the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep in America poll, 60 percent of Americans have driven while feeling sleepy and 37 percent admit to actually having fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year. It is often hard to tell if or when you are about to fall asleep. If you get sleepy, you may tell yourself: “I can handle this, I’ll be fine.”
Yet you are putting yourself, your family and others in danger. What you really need is a nap or a good night’s sleep.
Warning signs should be obvious, but being tired may hinder your ability to recognize the signs when you are too tired to drive. Dozing off while driving can be fatal, so take these signs seriously. Pulling off the road and taking a 20-minute nap may ensure your safe arrival. The first significant biological sign that tiredness or sleepiness is setting in is that the rate at which you blink goes up. Since the body doesn’t lie, we must heed what it is trying to tell us. Here are eight signs you’re too tired to drive:
1. You can’t stop yawning.
2. You feel restless or irritable.
3. Your mind wanders or you have disconnected thoughts.
4. You have trouble keeping your eyes open and focused, especially at stoplights.
5. You can’t remember driving the past few miles.
6. Your driving becomes sloppy (tailgating, weaving, missing traffic signals.)
7. You have trouble keeping your head up.
8. You hit the rumble strips on the road.
While most of us have experienced these signs, we usually don’t pull over. Drowsy drivers do cause accidents and do get killed. As you start on your family vacation or take your soccer team to a game three hours away, heed these recommendations by the National Sleep Foundation:
- Get at least seven to nine hours of sleep the night before a long drive.
- Leave enough time to get to your destination and give yourself a break from driving every two hours.
- Don’t drink alcohol or take mediation that increases drowsiness.
- Caffeine takes 20 to 30 minutes to work.
By listening to your body and watching out for the warning signs, you and your family can be sure to get to your destination trouble-free.
