One-fifth of traffic accidents today are due to fatigue. One of the main causes of fatigue in drivers can be seen as not getting enough sleep. So, does sleep time really affect traffic accidents?
Although most of us would answer ‘Yes’ to this question with our eyes closed, a scientific answer was presented to the question. Madeline Sprajcer and Drew Manson of CQUniversity analyzed 61 studies to date and showed the effect of poor sleep on accidents.
4-5 hours of sleep increases the risk of accident by 2 times:
Data obtained from studies revealed that getting 4-5 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours doubled the risk of an accident. In addition, it was stated that this risk increases with every 1 hour of sleep time lost. So much so that some studies have shown that 0-4 hours of sleep increases the risk of an accident up to 15 times.
Of course, it is almost impossible to impose a penalty that will somehow deter people from insomnia in order to prevent fatigue. As a matter of fact, the causes behind insomnia can also be highly variable. In this case, the most basic thing to do is to act responsibly individually.
The research has been published in Nature and Science of Sleep.
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