Rest up before hitting the road. Missing out on sleep makes you a drowsy driver—even when you don’t feel tired, finds a new study from the University of Pennsylvania.
Researchers found that people who slept 6 hours or less a night were almost three times more likely to nod off behind the wheel than 7-hour sleepers, suggesting that 1 hour could make all the difference.
The findings show that people aren’t very good judges of whether they’re too impaired to drive, says study author Michael Grandner, Ph.D. He says drowsy driving may be a bigger public safety issue than drunk driving, since there’s no breathalyzer to judge if you’ve had enough sleep. More than 40,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths a year are caused by drowsy driving, according to The National Highway Traffic and Safety Association.
If you must travel when you’re running low on shuteye, do it during daylight hours. The most dangerous time to drive is between 1 and 6 a.m., Grandner says, because your circadian system (or internal clock) isn’t trying as hard to keep you awake.
When you’re on the road, drink at least 8 ounces of water every hour to increase your concentration. (Even slight dehydration reduces your alertness, according to a French study.) And if you need to pull over, set an alarm on your phone for a 15-minute power nap, since it’s harder to recover from a longer snooze, researchers say.
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