It is Drowsy Driving Prevention Week this week. That is not a coincidence – it is deliberately planned in the week after Daylight Savings ends, when many people build up a sleep loss due to early wakings. Stepping behind the wheel sleepy is risky. Data from the AAA foundation suggests that one in five car accidents caused by drowsy driving results in death, totaling an estimate of 6,400 deaths in the U.S. annually. Although an employee’s commute might seem beyond the control of organizations, this issue is more closely tied to work than you think. Here are three ways in which work can be a factor in drowsy driving, and four ways to turn things around.
Long Work Hours
Spending more time at work reduces sleep time. A study led by Professor Barnes from the University of Washington shows that the more hours people work, the less they sleep. The data come from the American Time Use Survey, including more than 10,000 employed Americans. Participants slept on average 7.8 hours and worked on average 7.2 hours daily. For roughly every three hours worked extra, employees lost a full hour of sleep.
This means that if an employee works 10 hours, they dip under the CDC’s recommendation for adults under 60 years to sleep minimally seven hours a night. Sleeping less than seven hours has been related to reduced reaction time, and hence, this is where we start to see an increased risk for road accidents.
Night Shifts
Drowsy driving is more common in shift workers. Shift workers often work at schedules that are misaligned with the circadian rhythm of the human body. Especially when people work night shifts, they find it harder to stay awake on the job and more difficult to get enough sleep once they are off work. A study published in Sleep among 895 full-time hospital staff nurses had nurses fill out a daily log for four weeks. Of all nurses, 67% reported drowsy driving within this period, and 30 nurses revealed to drive drowsily after every shift worked.
Driving on the Job
In some jobs, such as trucking and bussing, long distance driving is the primary work task. In these professions, long hours on the road contribute to drowsy driving. In a study led by Professor Garbarino from the University of Genoa, nearly a quarter of the surveyed 989 truck drivers had a sleep debt of two hours or more. The odds of a motor vehicle accident were 1.5 times higher when the driver had sleep dept. The risk for drowsiness further inclines when driving between midnight and dawn. The number of nighttime drivers is in fact rapidly increasing, due to the rise of overnight delivery services such as Amazon’s Prime Overnight, potentially leading to more drowsy drivers on the road.
Beyond professional drivers, driving is part of many other jobs, such as contractors driving from job site to job site, or consultants commuting to a client. Business professional who frequently travel between time zones are particularly at risk for drowsy driving. For many consultants, it is not uncommon to take a red eye on Sunday evening, to then drive to the client’s office on Monday morning on very little sleep.
What Organizations Can Do
The risk of drowsy driving is substantial, and its consequences can be fatal. Organizations have various options to reduce drowsy driving and thereby protect employees and other road users.
· Work hour policies. While preventing long work hours is most effective, if long hours are common in your line of work, communicate that employees should not drive after an 11-hour workday. Also, if employees work from home while pulling an all-nighter, advise employees to stay home to rest before hitting the road.
· Nap pods. For late work nights, all-nighters, or night shifts that happen onsite, create places where employees can sleep before they commute home.
· Shuttle services. If employees are too sleepy to drive, offering shuttles or taxi services increases the chances that employees arrive home safely.
· Clear driving regulations. Create clear guidelines for employees who frequently combine overnight air travel with driving. Instead of using a rental car, ask employees to use a taxi instead.
None of these measures will fly if the beliefs around drowsy driving do not change. Dr. Dzierzewski, Senior Vice President of Research & Scientific Affairs at the National Sleep Foundation observes a cultural lack of appreciation for the safety concerns associated with not getting enough quality sleep and getting behind the wheel. In my correspondence with Dr. Dzierzewski, he states: “There is no debating the facts, drowsy driving is impaired driving—just like drunk, drugged, and distracted driving.” The first step for organizations is thus making employees aware of the risk of sleep deprivation instead of idolizing those who get by with little sleep. Sleep is not for wimps, it is for those who care about their life and that of others.