TRAVERSE CITY — Making sure you give yourself time to sleep is important for driving safety. According to AAA, losing one hour of sleep due to daylight saving time causes an increase in car crashes the week after.
“The American Academy of Sleep Medicine discusses that we should have at least seven hours of sleep at night,” shares Lois Neering, Nurse Practitioner of Sleep Medicine for Munson Medical Center, “and most Americans don’t get that. So when we lose that hour of sleep, it can lead to sleep deprivation, which is a significant stressor for the body.”
Not enough sleep affects our day-to-day, and being safe on the roads starts with a good night’s rest.
“For traffic accident prevention, we’re always going to, hit on adequate sleep, seven hours of sleep at night and always trying to, you know, shore up the week before a time change. And get to sleep a little bit earlier, especially when we spring forward, says Neering.”
According to AAA, deadly accidents caused by drowsiness are ten times higher than reported and drowsy driving is just as bad as drunk driving. Neering shares how you can protect yourself when out on the roads.
“We look to be more alert on the road so that we can stay vigilant, especially during that first week. after a time change. You just want to be paying extra attention. Avoid distractions, of course. Minimizing distractions while driving. Try not to use your phone. try not to eat. and then the other thing that we talked about is mental health management.”
Sleep is a way to help prevent accidents while driving but it also helps prevent further damage to your health.
“When we talk about the importance of that, your body requires sleep so that it can heal. that’s sort of the time when you are, getting into your sleep patterns to, to become rested and, ready for the next day. It’s sort of when we get into our dream sleep so that we can defrag our brains and sort of, process everything that we’ve gone through for the day. and, our bodies need that to heal from anything that’s going on. it helps us prevent... well, it helps us shore up our immune response.”
For those who haven’t caught up from the time change, Neering suggests giving yourself time for some sleep.
“Go to bed earlier and try not to think, well, it’s 245, but really it’s only 145. you know. and so just work with it as it is the time that it is... if you need to go to bed tonight at 8:00 instead of 9:00 to catch up on your sleep, try to get that seven hours in this week.”