Nearly 7,500 Car Crashes in U.S. Linked to Drowsy Driving: CDC

Almost one in every 25 U.S. drivers fall asleep behind the wheel, finds a survey.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in its national survey that many people in the country drive around even when they are sleepy. Apart from driving under influence, texting and not following safety rules like wearing seat belts, it is seen that sleeping for less than five hours daily also increases the risk of road accidents and car crashes.

The survey revealed that each year around 7,500 deaths from motor vehicle accidents are caused by drowsy driving and majority of these incidents occur early in the morning or late at night, reports the Daily Digest.

The agency gathered these facts by interviewing 92,000 people from 10 different states in the United States to note their driving habits, attitude toward adhering traffic rules and how often they smoked, wore seat belts and consumed alcohol.

"About 4 percent, or one in 25 people, reported falling asleep while driving in the month before the survey," said Anne Wheaton, study author and a CDC epidemiologist, reports the CBS News.

Not all drowsy drivers fall asleep but the chances of a car crash are high as they miss sign boards and tend to weave in and out of lanes. Less sleep, fatigue and drowsiness impairs vision, driving abilities and perception of distance and speed. Individuals are more likely to indulge in reckless driving, become restless, moody and aggressive when sleep deprived, which prompts them to drive at unsafe speeds.

Drinking alcohol also induces drowsiness in drivers. Young men, particularly those aged below 25, tend to drive even when they are intoxicated.  One-third of the total 33,561 traffic related deaths in 2012 were linked to alcohol and nearly half of the co-travelers who died did not wear seat belts.

"Alcohol amplifies the effect of drowsiness, but also if you're drowsy, it doesn't take as much alcohol for you to be impaired," Wheaton said, reports CBS News.

The CDC officials are unsure if the cases of drowsy driving have increased in recent times. They advise people who commute for longer distances to hit the sack early to get adequate sleep and those suffering from sleeping disorders should take medical help.

"We do know that people are getting less sleep than they used to. And we think that the prevalence of sleep apnea is also increasing, because it tends to go along with obesity, and we know that that's increasing. So it's drowsy driving definitely not going down. Get enough sleep," advises Wheaton, reports the CBS News.

More information is available online the journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.