Submitted by: Emilyy Smith
Drowsy driving is an offense as culpable as drunk driving. In both cases the reaction time is lower than normal. Driving a vehicle despite drowsiness is a big risk.
Driving drowsy causes havoc on the roads. Says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Drowsy driving causes thousands of road accidents every year bringing death, injury and colossal financial loss . Therefore, driving schools impart awareness and mitigation methods in their theory and practical sessions with multi-media tools.
Body Mechanism
[http://www.defensivedriving.ca/drowsy-driving] To avoid the risks related to drowsy driving a driver himself has to take all prescribed measures to stay alert and curb drowsiness. Having an adequate rest and sleep before setting out on the long drive is most important. When the human body moves into the sleeping mode, there happens the release of a chemical called melatonin. When a person tries to fight off those chemicals to stay awake deliberately, he slips into a semi conscious dazed condition with impaired judgment and neural coordination.
Never Ignore Fatigue
Despite fatigue, many motorists try to overestimate their ability to drive. Forced efforts to ward off sleep and keep driving will lead to the vehicle drifting into another lane or off the roadway until it was too late.
Drowsiness and fatigue can be understood from the following behaviors such as daydreaming, disconnected thoughts, closed eyes and drifting of the vehicle from the roadway. To check symptoms of drowsiness these tips are useful.
How to Control?
Getting more sleep is important. The body needs uninterrupted sleep of at least two hours to get into the stage of rapid-eye movement. So cat naps can help but will not give the perfect rest to the brain.
Those who work on night shifts or work overtime are vulnerable to drowsy driving. The State of New Jersey declared drowsy driving a crime in 2003. It made drivers knowingly fatigued a crime if they were up more than 24 hours.
Some drivers are likely to sleep or feel sleepy while driving. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), the following category of people are most vulnerable to committing errors due to sleepy driving:
Drivers aged 18 to 28
Male drivers
Night shift Workers
Precautions to be Alert
Start the long drive after a good sleep
Drive at normal waking hours
Those sitting in the front seats should be awake.
Take a break after every two hours or 100 miles
Symptoms of Drowsiness
Signs of drowsy driving are the following
Heavy eyelids, frequent blinking
Impaired concentration
Missing traffic signals
Repeated yawning
Lane Drifting
Irritability
In case, a driver feels that drowsiness is going out of control, then he must do the following actions to restore normalcy before starting to drive.
Tips to Check Drowsiness
Pull the vehicle to the side of the road and sleep for a minimum 20 minutes.
Take a cup of coffee
Stretch the legs and get some fresh air.
Playing music but but the music should not induce further sleep.
Mechanical Control
There are many mechanical devices now available on the market such as No-Nap Anti Drowsiness Device that can be put on the top of the ear. As as soon as the head nods forward in a sleeping mode, it will emit an alarm to alert.
About the Author: [
defensivedriving.ca/drowsy-driving
] Author is driving instructor and has written many articles that provide enough information about driving lessons in calgary and drowsy driving program. In this article, she has discussed about Driving Drowsy and explaining the danger of dro
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