Long Hours of Nocturnal Driving Encouraging Risk of Accidents

An important new research now attempts to warn people of another deadly on-the-road concoction - extended driving and sleep deprivation.

An important new research now attempts to warn people of another deadly on-the-road concoction - extended driving and sleep deprivation. The team of researchers has proved that the excess fatigue due to the lack of sleep and long hours of driving increases the chances of road accidents.

Experts from CNRS, Inrets, the University of Bordeaux and the University of Stockholm say that their study was able to determine whether 2, 4 and 8 hours of nocturnal driving affected driving performance differently.

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Sleep disorders can either be having difficulty in getting sleep or dozing off at inappropriate time.

Lead researcher Pierre Philip, from the Laboratory for motion, adaptation and cognition (CNRS/Université Bordeaux 1 and Bordeaux 2), has revealed that with a view to evaluating the fatigue caused by accumulated driving time, the team made 14 young volunteers drive on an open highway during three nocturnal driving sessions: from 3-5 am, 1-5 am and 9 pm-5 am.

While driving durations were different, sleep pressure at the end of the driving session was identical because of the late hours, reports the Science Daily.

The researchers calculated the number of times the drivers veered off course, and crossed the lateral lines inappropriately during the last hour of driving in each session.

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They said that compared with the reference session (9-10 pm), the risk of inappropriate line crossing was six times greater during the 3-5am driving session, 15 times greater during the 1-5am driving session, and 24 times greater during the 9 pm-5am driving session.

The team also observed that compared with the shortest driving session (3-5 am), the risk of inappropriate crossing of the lateral lines increased 2.6 times during the 1-5 am driving session, and was fourfold during the 9 pm-5 am driving session.