The French do not get enough sleep and, according to a recent American study, nights that are too short increase the risk of road accidents. We take stock of this recent study.
Sleep affects alertness while driving
The study published last December in the American journal BMC Medicine, shows the link between lack of sleep and attitude behind the wheel. What does it mean to sleep little or too little? For researchers, sleep less than seven or eight hours of sleep a night is not enough to recover sufficiently.
“ You can’t shorten your nights and expect to keep the same abilities behind the wheel Recalls Dr David Yang, who led the interviews with the volunteers. The French are not very good students and the figures are worrying: 10% of them have already fallen asleep while driving.
Sleep or alcohol, same danger
Scientists have also proven that “ a driver who has slept less than 5 hours is exposed to the same risk of accident as someone who has been drinking ”. Concretely, the study explains that 17 hours of active vigilance have the same impact on the body as the presence of 0.5 grams of alcohol in the blood.
The risk of a traffic accident is increased by 33% for a person who sleeps only six hours a night. The other alert launched by the researchers concerns people who have sleep apnea (sometimes without even knowing it). They also risk suffering or causing road accidents, due to a lack of sufficient restful sleep.
Maylis Choné
Read also: How to sleep better?
