While many teenagers suffer from a lack of sleep and attempt to continue as normal, doing so can significantly enhance their chances of being involved in a car crash, a new study has suggested.
A report in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows that teens who suffer from poor sleep quality also have an elevated chance of an accident.
Lead author Dr Fabio Cirignotta, professor of neurology at the University of Bologna in Italy, pointed out that any adolescents who do feel drowsy should pull over and attempt to have a nap, although the best solution would be to seek medical assistance which can address their problems altogether.
"Commonly used countermeasures to fatigue, such as opening the window, listening to the radio, or drinking a coffee, are known to be short-lasting and, essentially, useless," he explained.
The study featured 339 students, 80 of which had already crashed at least once, with 15 per cent considering sleepiness to have been the main cause of the crash.
Meanwhile, 56 per cent of students who had at least one previous crash reported driving while sleepy, compared with 35 per cent of subjects who had not been in an accident.
Dr Cirignotta pointed out that sleep problems also were commonly reported by the students, with 45 per cent waking up at least once during the night with trouble falling asleep again, 40 per cent complaining of difficulties in waking up in the morning and 19 per cent reporting bad sleep in general.
The expert concluded: "If a subject perceives sleepiness, he or she would probably already have a reduced performance at the wheel, and nobody can safely detect the real instant when sleep is starting in order to stop driving at that time.
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