Sleep Disturbances and Disorders: A Poorly Recognized Accident Risk

Speed and alcohol consumption are widely recognized contributory factors to motor vehicle accidents (MVA) and are almost universally regulated throughout the world by speed limits and blood/urine/breath alcohol levels while driving. In recent decades, there has been growing recognition that sleep disturbances and disorders with consequent sleepiness during the waking hours also represent important contributing factors to driving accident risk.1 However, this risk is difficult to quantify by objective measures such as are employed for speed and alcohol, which inevitably result in sleepiness being a less well-documented contributing factor to MVA.
Source: Sleep Medicine Clinics - Category: Sleep Medicine Authors: Tags: Preface Source Type: research