According to a new piece of research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in the US, having less than 7 hours sleep can significantly impact your driving skills.

Less than 4 hours sleep was estimated to be the equivalent of having a blood alcohol level of 1.5x the legal limit!

“Being awake isn’t the same as being alert. Falling asleep isn’t the only risk,” said study author Brian Tefft, a senior researcher at the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Drivers who reported sleeping less than four hours were more than 15 times likelier to be responsible for the car accident than those who got at least seven hours of sleep, the study found.

“Even if they manage to stay awake, sleep-deprived drivers are still at increased risk of making mistakes – like failing to notice something important, or misjudging a gap in traffic – which can have tragic consequences,” Tefft said in a journal news release.

How do you think this compares to the UK? As people become ‘time poor’ are more people putting themselves and others in harms way?

Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash