On a cross-country trip, it is common to spend some of the time driving at night.
Without adequate rest, this may raise the risk of experiencing sudden, brief lapses into sleep.
It may be time for someone else to drive.
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What explains these episodes of microsleep?
Learn about the signs, causes, dangers, and prevention.
What Is Microsleep?
They may occur while driving and increase the risk of a serious car accident.
Microsleep does not occur for long enough for any of these characteristics to fully occur.
Signs
What are some of the potential signs of experiencing microsleep?
There may be an awareness of these symptoms right after waking.
It is also possible that the microsleep episodes could be so brief that they may not be fully recognized.
Drivers driving at night often become tired.
Sleep disorders may also increase the risk of experiencing microsleep episodes.
It is important to get enough sleep to meet yoursleep needs.
For adults, this means getting at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep on a nightly basis.
A great way to eliminate sleep deprivation, other than simply sleeping more, is to improve overallsleep efficiency.
Luckily, there are many ways to improve sleep efficiency.
One great way to improve sleep efficiency is to eliminate all potential distractions when sleeping.
There should be no television on and no music playing.
There may be some otherways to sleep better.
Taking such steps can help to improve sleep efficiency, and thus work to eliminate microsleep.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US).
Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19956/
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