Driving while sleepy may not seem like it should be a crime, but recently in Texas, six people were killed and more were injured by a driver who admitted he fell asleep at the wheel. Sleepy drivers can be just as dangerous as drunk drivers. A study conducted in California proved this theory. Researchers compared people who were legally drunk with patients who had sleep apnea in a test of reaction times.
Sleep apnea is a disorder in which patients temporarily stop breathing during the night.
In the tests, the sober sleep apnea patients had worse reaction times than people who were too drunk to drive legally. Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas say patients with sleep apnea tend to be sleepy during the daytime because their sleep is interrupted often as they stop breathing, then wake enough to start breathing again. They may think they're getting plenty of sleep because they go to bed on time, but it's not restful sleep. If you're often sleepy during the day even when you think you've had a full night's sleep, ask your doctor about sleep apnea. You should be just as cautious about driving when you're tired as you are about driving drunk.