Have you ever felt afraid that you might fall asleep while driving? Falling asleep behind the wheel is a real risk for many sleep-deprived individuals.
Do you ever consider pulling over and taking a nap when you feel sleepy?
Or are you inclined to think, “If I take a nap, then I’m going to be delayed. I’ll be late for the meeting. I won’t make my deliveries on time. I’ll run into heavy traffic. I won’t see my kids before they go to bed.†Many of the thousands of drivers who nod off or who fall asleep at the wheel every day, endangering themselves, their families and other road users, most likely think in a similar way.
In the U.S., where research on drowsy driving has been carried out over several years, The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) found some startling statistics. In a six-month period, the NHTSA found that 15 million drivers nationwide had nodded off or had fallen asleep while driving. More than half of these drowsy drivers wandered into another lane, drifted onto the shoulder or drove across the center line. In other incidents, the driver ran off the road. Over a five-year period, it was estimated that one drowsy driver crash happened every two minutes.
According to research, drowsy driving is more likely to happen in the small hours of the morning, before your normal wake-up time or during the mid-afternoon — due to a lull in your brain’s alerting system. Once a sleep attack happens, your ability to drive is more impaired than that of a drunk driver.
I have had a couple of drowsy driving episodes myself, recently. I had a particularly bad bout while driving back from West Kerry a few weeks ago. I had gone down for a wedding and was driving home the next day, following a late night. I’d been on the road for about 2.5 hours, when I began to feel sleepy — my eyes felt heavy. I opened the windows to let some fresh air in, but when the tiredness didn’t lift, I decided I’d better pull over and take a break. I came off the motorway and found a place where I could close my eyes and take a nap. I slept for only 15 minutes, but it was enough to get rid of the drowsy feeling. When I got back on the motorway, I was wide awake and didn’t have any further drowsy episodes for the rest of the journey.
What about you? Would you consider pulling over to somewhere safe and having a short nap the next time you feel drowsy while driving?
If you are having trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep at night, you might like to check out this video “Help Me Sleep: How to Overcome Your Sleep Problems.â€
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If you’ve got a big project you have to really focus on, or especially if you have to drive, hit the hay. If the rest of the workday looks like smooth sailing, or you often have trouble sleeping at night, skip the nap.
“Naps are sort of a double-edged sword,†warns Dr. Epstein. “If you’re indeed sleepy and it’s going to interfere with your performance, the best way to get over that is to go to sleep. But if you have trouble sleeping at night, taking a nap can be a problem, because if you sleep in the daytime you won’t sleep at night.â€
You’ve also got to be tired enough to fall asleep during the day. “Well-rested people don’t have the ability to power nap and that’s great,†says Maas. “It’s much better to get good nocturnal sleep and not be able to than to have to power nap. While we do have a natural dip in our circadian rhythms that usually occurs in the afternoon, that is exacerbated by not having good nocturnal sleep.â€
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Because of the natural cycles of our circadian rhythms, we are at our most tired twice during a 24-hour period. One peak of sleepiness is usually in the middle of the night, so the other, 12 hours later, falls smack-dab in the middle of the afternoon. “It’s not that [there’s] a good time to get the nap, it’s that’s the time you’re going to be sleepy,†explains Dr. Epstein. “It’s a physiologic basis for a siesta,†he says, and also why so many of us feel a slump around that time and head for the coffeemaker.
If you get enough sleep at night, chances are you won’t be bothered by the mid-afternoon peak of sleepiness. But if you’re sleep-deprived, you’ll feel that “sleep debt†greater in the afternoon, and be more inclined to nap.
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“The more comfortable you can get, the easier it is to fall asleep,†says Dr. Epstein. That could mean closing your office door and dimming the lights, or finding an unused conference room, parking yourself on a common area couch, or even just putting your head down on your desk, he says.
But sleep-chasers should also get creative. Many large companies, especially in their headquarters, have infirmaries or other first-aid offices. Maas suggests calling to see if they have any available beds. Or, in warm climates, lie down for a few minutes on a bench outdoors. Desperate? “Even restrooms give you an opportunity to sit for 10 minutes,†he only half-jokes.
Better still, try heading out for a nap on your next “lunch†break — no one has to know you’re not actually eating! “A lot of workers are kind of sneaky in these naps, they’ll go out to the parking lot and take a quick snooze,†says Maas, but most are allowed (if not legally required) to take a break during the day. Or, head to a local spa that provides nap rooms for a fee. Locations are popping up in numerous cities, reports CNN Money.
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The same sleep hygiene rules apply to naps as to nighttime rest, namely that you want the environment to be quiet, dark and cool, says Maas. That might mean bringing an eye mask or ear plugs to work, he says, especially if you’re opting for a nap on a communal couch.
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Maas’s definition of the power nap calls for only 10 to 15 minutes of rest, but Dr. Epstein says even up to 30 can still be beneficial. However, sleep much longer than that and you’ll enter deep sleep, leaving you feeling groggy when you wake up, warns Maas.
If you really need more than 15 minutes of shuteye, you’re better off shooting for a full 90 to guarantee waking up feeling refreshed, as that’s how long it takes your body to complete an entire REM cycle, he explains. So set a cell-phone alarm and then get back to business.
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“Caffeine acts as a way to avoid sleepiness, but it’s not a replacement for sleep,†says Dr. Epstein. If you have a big project to focus on in the afternoon, caffeine can help you power through the work, but it won’t do anything to chip away at your sleep debt, he explains. Plus, if you resort to caffeine too late in the day you risk messing with your nighttime sleep.
As long as you’re four to seven hours away from bedtime, there’s no real need to skip your afternoon pick-me-up, even if you’re going to steal away for some zzz’s. In fact, caffeine can even improve your performance later in the day. It takes some time for the caffeine to kick in, so some experts suggest what’s been dubbed a “caffeine nap†— drinking a cup of coffee before a 20-minute nap, then waking up to “maximum alertness,†says Dr. Epstein.
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Smart, educated companies are catching on to the fact that sleepy employees are bad for their bottom line and promoting short breaks as a potential solution.
If your boss is at the other end of the spectrum, presenting the facts might be a good idea. Many corporations are already promoting preventive health and wellness programs focused on exercise and nutrition, says Maas, so why not add sleep? “They’ve got to realize that there are three things that determine longevity: nutrition, exercise we’re already doing a lot about, but we’re totally ignoring the third component, which is sleep,†says Maas. “Sleep is treated as a luxury in American society, and it’s a necessity.â€
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