Can Insomnia Causes Fatal Car Accidents?

New research shows that insomnia is a major cause of motor vehicle accidents. It may be easy to understand how fatigue could be linked to car accidents, but insomnia is defined as the inability to sleep, so how can that affect your driving? It’s been proven that a lack of sleep causes impaired concentration, judgement and performance.

Recent studies show that people suffering from the following three symptoms of insomnia were almost 3X more likely to die in a fatal car accident:

• Experiencing sleep that is not restful
• Having difficulty staying asleep
• Inability to fall asleep at all

Of the symptoms listed above, the “inability to fall asleep” showed the strongest correlation with accident fatalities. Individuals that had trouble falling asleep were 2X more likely to die from a motor vehicle accident than those who never had problems falling asleep. In fact, the study showed that 34% of car accident deaths were caused by people who had difficulty falling asleep.

Understanding that insomnia is linked to car accident deaths may encourage those suffering from the problem to seek treatment.

Realizing that insomnia is a problem with real life consequences should be an incentive to get help. If you or someone you love suffers from insomnia, you could be putting yourself and others in danger.

Public awareness, understanding of the symptoms, and the quality treatment for those who suffer from  insomnia will go a long way to help prevent fatal car accidents and unintentional injuries..