Causes And Effects Of Driving

“On average, most college students get 6 - 6.9 hours of sleep per night” (“Sleep Rocks! ...get More of It!”). Sleep is something that not many people think about, whether they do or not doesn’t really matter; what matters is that sleep is a big part of everyday life that is required to live a sustainable life. While most people believe sleep to be a time for your body to rest, actually it is when one’s body is working the hardest (“Why Do We Need Sleep?”). Sleep is no longer something that comes at the end of the day, but it is a vital part of everyday.

The impact of sleep deprivation can impact nearly every aspect of your life. In my life, it has affected me in so many ways. Throughout the day, I feel tired, and when I’m supposed to have a good night’s rest, I am wide awake. The days I don’t have the energy to do anything, are about most days, but even though the effects of insomnia are great they won’t end my life. Although insomnia is common, most people can find a treatment that works for them. There are techniques for stress reduction, relaxation, sleep schedule management and even sleep pills that can control insomnia. Relaxing and scheduling a sleep pattern helps me get a better night’s rest, yet sometimes it’s still tough. Besides, it is better than stressing about it or having anxiety or depression as a result of

Sleep is often over looked as an intervention for ME, but through the improvement of environment, medication, life style changes and self-help strategies, sleep can be improved to help provide symptom relief and increase an individuals energy envelope. (ANZMES, n.d.c; Pemberton & Berry, 2009; Wright,

According to Vila (2006), data through the year 2003 indicated that more officers were killed by “unattended adverse events than during the commission of felonies.” Fatigue resulting from reduced sleep, both in duration and quality, is a significant factor in unintentional injuries and fatalities in the law enforcement community. Two hundred eighty seven (287) of the officers involved in the study reported being involved in a motor vehicle collision during the follow up period. Fatigue and drowsiness resulting from sleep disorders is believed to be a contributing factor in a significant number of these collisions. Across 2009-2010, more than a third of line of duty deaths were attributed to motor vehicle crashes (NLEMF, 2010). Sleepiness and fatigue are major factors in motor vehicle collisions and drivers suffering from excessive sleepiness are not only involved in more collisions, but the collisions are often more serious and result in more severe injuries (Drake, 2010). While, officers involved in the study regarded drowsy driving to be as serious and as dangerous as drunk driving, almost half of the participants reported falling asleep while driving 1-2 times a month due to excessive sleepiness (JAMA, 2011). The loss of only two hours of sleep over just a one week period was found to have the same decrease in performance comparable with individuals after 24 hours of staying awake.

Driver fatigue may not be illegal but it is lethal. Fatigue is a discreet killer that occurs for drivers no matter their age, their driving experience, how long the trip is or the time of day. In 2012, there were more fatigue related crashes than drink driving crashes in NSW. When someone doesn’t sleep for the previous 17 years before driving, they have an equal effect to someone who drives with a blood alcohol level of 0.05. A study by Nordbakke and Sagberg in 2007 concluded that drivers had a standard knowledge on preventative actions and the factors influencing the risk of falling asleep. But, despite this knowledge, drivers continue to drive on the road whilst tired.

Distracted driving is one of the fastest growing problems in the United States.   It is starting to be considered as serious as drunk driving based on the dangerous outcomes.  According to the Department of Transportation (2012), “distracted driving was a cause of roughly 450,000 accident-related injuries and nearly 5,500 fatalities in 2009 alone” (para. 1). Drivers who allow themselves to become distracted while driving are not only endangering themselves, but other innocent bystanders.

Sleep is a beneficial necessity both from a scientific and psychological standpoint as sleep improves mental and physical health. Sleep plays an essential role in our growth and development as human beings. During sleep, our brains are growing and preparing for the day ahead so that we may be productive and attentive in every daily task (“Sleep”). Sleep is used by some as a way to escape the harsh reality of life, healing genuine sadness and terminating evocative pain. Without the recommended minimum of eight hours of sleep each night, people can get agitated, distracted easily, acquire health problems, make bad decisions, and feel sad and depressed (Borbely).

In 2014, there were 32,675 deaths related to motor vehicle accidents (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and The Highway Loss Data Institute, 2015). The top reported causes of car accidents are distracted driving, speeding, and drunk driving (Starver, 2014). So many lives have been lost to the road, but fortunately, the number of deaths in motor vehicle accidents are decreasing year to year. This trend also correlates with the increasing amount of laws created in order to deter people from actions associated with the causes of many car accidents. In order to continue this trend of reducing fatalities related to car accidents, the federal government should pass laws to standardize safer practices across states, as well as require new drivers, and those who have had their licenses revoked, to take courses on the dangers of driving and defensive driving practices. To support these laws, the federal government could

Everyone needs sleep and it will make a day go smoothly or completely ruin someone’s rest of the day. Every human, animal, and most insects require a sufficient amount of sleep to function normally thought-out their day and night. On average humans need about seven to ten hours of sleep, as a normal requirement for the brain to recover conventionally. However, 40-50 percent of Americans do not get enough sleep every night (Information on Insomnia, n.d.). Lack of time or stressful living schedule may hinder there sleeping time. Others may have a disorder that causes them to have horrible sleep experiences and not being able to sleep.

Imagine a world where everyone arrived safely to and from their destinations and cities nationwide staunchly enforced the safest method of driving for all citizens. Picture living in a community without the constant fear of being harmed by everyday travels and precarious fellow drivers. The thought of this being true and eminently lessening the amount of yearly fatalities provoked by car accidents may seem exceptionally ridiculous, but by establishing a law against distracted and intoxicated drivers, this feint fantasy can become a reality. A law forbidding the act of operating a vehicle while using electronics and/or while under the influence of drugs should be instilled so that the overall number of automobile related deaths and injuries

So as long as I’ve been driving I’ve always recalled my mother’s voice saying, “Don’t drink and drive. Sleep at a friend’s house or pay for a taxi. Don’t Do It echoing in the back of my head.” So imagine my surprise when I found out that “driver distraction is actually more important now than critical crash factors such as fatigue, drug ingestion and alcohol intoxication”. According to John Lee, author of Driver Distraction and Inattention: Advances in Research and Countermeasures, “Road vehicle crashes are predicted to become the third largest cause of death and injury globally by 2020”.

Driving is a skill and a necessity in today’s society. As with everything that is designed to help people there are those who take advantage of it and put others in danger. According to a study done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2017) some of the most dangerous driving habits that occur in the United States are; speeding, distracted driving, and driving tired. To improve our society we need to focus on these habits and try to break them. In doing so, it will make traveling by road much safer and will reduce the number of people that are killed in motor vehicle accidents.

Zillions of people across the globe suffer from various sorts of sleeping disorders. Some suffer from insomnia while some are extremely light sleepers; they frequently wake up at little sound. Whatever type of sleeping pattern they may have, one thing is that both the groups of people suffer from sleeping deficiency. Though disturbed sleeping pattern cannot be described as a health issue, it can wear down a person.

As we all know that there are many people dying or getting severely injured every day because either they are driving under the influence (DUI) or they are victims of those people who drink and drive. The United States is the country which has the most accidents caused by DUI. According to the article “Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes”, the U.S has the most impaired driving accidents. Statistics in the article “Impaired Driving” show that around 10,076 people were killed in ‘alcohol – impaired’ driving in 2013 in the United States. Research shows that people aged 16 to 49 are the ones who are most likely break the laws of DUI, and teenagers are more likely to get into fatal accidents. Therefore, the government, and other organizations have invented programs to help these people and reduce rates of drinking and driving in the United States. For example, Reinforcing Alcohol Prevention (RAP), Criminal Justice Policies, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) etc. However, not all programs work the same way for everyone. To find out how to reduce drinking and driving rates in the United States using programs, we have to look at what kind of people are breaking DUI laws, what are the causes, and then we can find out which program will work better for a specific group.

We spend one third of our lives doing it, and yet, some of us never seem to be able to get enough. People all over the world don’t receive enough sleep whether it’s from a medical condition like narcolepsy, or simply not having enough time in a day. The effects of getting a good night’s rest are essential and signs of sleep depravation are not as hard to spot as one may think.