Are You Sleeping Enough?

  Do you feel you are getting enough sleep? Students are deeply pressured to do well in school while oftentimes being employed at the same time. Therefore, sleep is commonly neglected or limited even though it is crucial for your mental & physical health, as well as injury prevention.

     Don’t endanger yourself & others by getting behind the wheel too drowsy! A lack of sleep will impair your reaction time, judgement, mood while driving & vision. It is no surprise that drowsy drivers are responsible for 21% of fatal crashes each year. Those responsible are typically 15-24 or 75-79 years old and these accidents commonly occur between the hours of 6am-7:59am & 2:00pm-5:59pm.   [Source: Highway Safety]

   Individuals should be getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night. If you sleep 1-2 hours less than the recommended time, you are 1.3 times more likely to be in an accident while sleeping 2-3 hours less increases your risk by 3 times!   [Source: AAA Foundation]

    The people that are tired behind the wheel are those do not sleep enough, have undiagnosed sleeping disorders, take medication, and shift workers that work night shifts or long shifts [Source: CDC]. If you do end up losing sleep, be prepared for the multiple effects. There is a relationship between mood and sleep. Losing sleep may cause or enhance feelings of stress, irritability, motivation, anger, and depression. Could this impact how you drive? In reverse, mood & depression can lead to sleep problems as well. As a student, you may have already experienced this. How many nights have stress & anxiety prevented you from falling asleep?

If falling asleep is impacting your daily living, schedule an appointment with a counselor at the Center for Health & Counselor!

Prevent an accident by:

·       Pulling over to nap for 15-20 minute or switching drivers

·       Even better, improving your sleeping habits to get enough sleep. Learn more about sleep by visiting the “Choose to Snooze” event on March 9^th from 11am-1pm at the Student Event Center.

Learn more at http://drowsydriving.org/about/

By: Esteban Moreno