Car Crashes Are 3x More Likely With Shift Work Sleep Disorder goodmenproject.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goodmenproject.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Previous studies have shown how sleep disorders can raise the risk of traffic crashes, but they were in controlled environments, Edara noted. Our study goes a step further by using actual observed crash and near-crash data from approximately 2,000 events occurring in six U.S. states, the researcher explained.
Other sleep conditions, such as insomnia and sleep apnea, also caused elevated risks of accidents We’ve known for a while now that sleep disorders increase crash risk, but here we are able to quantify that risk using real world crash data while accounting for confounding variables such as roadway and traffic characteristics.
People who develop shift work sleep disorder are three times more likely to be involved in a vehicle accident, according to new research.
People who work nontraditional work hours, such as 11 PM to 7 AM, are more likely to develop the chronic condition that disrupts their sleep.
“This discovery has many major implications, including the need to identify engineering counter-measures to help prevent these crashes from happening,” says Praveen Edara, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri.
“Such measures can include the availability of highway rest areas, roadside and in-vehicle messaging to improve a driver’s attention, and how to encourage drivers who may have a late-night work shift to take other modes of transportation, including public transit or ride-share services.”
Science has named a chronic sleep disorder, SWSD, potentially affecting millions who work the graveyard shift and making it more dangerous for them to drive when tired.