Increased Risk of Fatal Car Accidents for Insomniacs

The National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project has launched a campaign entitled “Sleep Well, Be Well” in an effort to raise awareness on the importance of sleep to health and safety. The impact that a lack of sleep can have on one’s safety is evidenced by a recent Norwegian study which found that people suffering from insomnia are 2.8 times more likely to die in a fatal accident than people who get adequate sleep.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accidental injuries are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. Car accidents account for more than 33,000 of these fatalities each year.

The Norwegian study, published in the November 2014 issue of Sleep journal, suggests that some car accident fatalities could be prevented with increased awareness and treatment of insomnia. The researchers surveyed 54,399 men and women between the ages of 20 and 89 about their sleep habits. Three aspects of insomnia were identified as risk factors; difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and a feeling of unrest after sleep.

During a 14 year follow-up after the initial surveys, 277 participants were killed by unintentional injuries. Fifty-seven of these deaths occurred in car accidents. By analyzing the data, researchers were able to conclude that individuals who had difficulty falling asleep had a significantly increased risk of being involved in a fatal car accident. They estimated that 55% of car accident fatalities could have been prevented in the absence of insomnia, and that 34% of these accidental deaths were the result of insomnia in which the subject had difficulty falling asleep.

The National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project hopes to increase the health, well-being, and safety of Americans through awareness and education about the necessity of sleep.