No Sleep? Hit The Bed, Not The Road

In today’s world, the less sleep one gets measures up to how much work gets done. Some of the most successful people claim to sleep an average of three hours a night or wake up at four in the morning because it is the most productive time in the day to get work done. As college students enveloped by social media, it is common to see snapchats of how late our peers are up studying, some even pulling all-nighters, especially during finals season. However, while less sleep may seem to help with productivity, over time it catches up and can have detrimental long-term effects on health.

In particular, the truck driving industry is greatly impacted by sleep deprivation. Furthermore, this extends to the public as others’ lives could be at risk should there be other drivers who are fatigued on the road. In 2014, ABC News reported about the dangers of truck drivers being forced to drive while they are sleep deprived. Many of these drivers have extreme pressure on them to meet their scheduled deliveries and this takes a toll on their health, as well as of others. This poses to be a big problem as these drivers depend on their job for their livelihood and since they are paid based on mileage, this only promotes the need to drive while being fatigued.

Abe Atallah, a truck driver from Detroit, was interviewed in which he stated that many drivers falsify their log books so they can stay on the road in order to get more mileage out of their day when they should be sleeping. However, this poses to be a significant threat as there have already been many cases where falsified logs have led to sleep deprivation, which in turn has led to fatigue-related crashes in which lives have been endangered. Some of these have even been fatal. Tracy Morgan, a comedian and actor, fell victim to one of these crashes.

In Atallah’s experience, many of these companies do not realize or frankly do not care about the risks fatigued drivers may pose on the road. After all, it is a business. Atallah recalled one night in which he called his dispatcher and explained how he had been awake for several hours straight and was worried he would not be able to drive anymore for the night. The dispatcher responded by telling him to drink coffee and take a walk around (Atallah already had done this). He was transferred to two more dispatchers whom he told that he did not want to harm anyone else on the road. The third dispatcher called him dramatic and made sure he knew he would face serious consequences for his phone call after another driver was sent to retrieve the load from him. Atallah had recorded this and uploaded it to YouTube

Although companies technically cannot require truck drivers to continue driving if they report they are too tired, they are still being pressured. Hence, there needs to be regulations and laws enforced to ensure that roads are kept safe. Dr. Gail Baura and her colleagues have conducted research on continuous drowsiness monitoring. During her presentation at a neuroscience seminar at Loyola University Chicago, Baura referenced an article on long-haul truck drivers and their sleeping patterns. In this study, Mitler et. al monitored the performance, as well as electrophysiological responses, of four groups of twenty truck drivers and compared four driving schedules. What they found was that the drivers spent on average about 5.18 hours a day in bed and out of this, 4.78 hours of actual sleep based on the electrophysiological data. Furthermore, these drivers worked long hours, often times in the late night and early morning, cutting into their normal sleeping patterns. The results of their study demonstrate that these long-haul truck drivers sleep less than what is needed to remain alert on the job and this can pose a threat not only to themselves, but for public safety, as well. Hence, it is extremely important to recognize the detrimental effects that sleep deprivation can have on drivers and on the public and enforce necessary precautions and regulations in order to diminish the threat associated with fatigued driving.

Mitler, M. M., Miller, J. C., Lipsitz, J. J., Walsh, J. K., & Wylie, C. D. (1997). The Sleep of Long-Haul Truck Drivers. The New England Journal of Medicine, 337(11), 755–761.

Rhee, Joseph, and Alexa Valiente. “The Danger of Forcing Truck Drivers to Drive Sleep-Deprived Exposed.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 18 Sept. 2014, abcnews.go.com/US/danger-forcing-truck-drivers-drive-sleep-deprived-exposed/story?id=25544862.