DRIVER HEALTH: WAKING UP TOTHE


PROBLEM OF SLEEP-DEPRIVED DRIVERS Driver challenges to healthy living and ways to help


This article is the second of a two- part series. This issue of Behind the Wheel will take a look at the challenges to getting proper sleep and how it affects driver health.


BY MARY LOU JAY Contributing Writer


“Sleep loss and sleep disorders affect an


individual’s performance, safety, and quali- ty of life. Almost 20 percent of all serious car crash injuries in the general population are associated with driver sleepiness, inde- pendent of alcohol effects…Compared to healthy individuals, individuals suffering from sleep loss, sleep disorders, or both are less productive, have an increased health care utilization, and an increased likeli- hood of accidents.” (Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem, Chapter 3 summary, from the Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research.) Trucking companies that want to keep


their drivers safer and healthier should take a good look at their drivers’ sleep hab- its, according to Dean Croke, vice president of Omnitracs Analytics, which offers pre- dictive analytics and remediation solutions for transportation companies. “Our indus- try is fixated on driver turnover and acci- dents and telematics and compliance. But the biggest thing that gets ignored is driver health and wellness, and the most impor- tant subset from Omnitracs’ Analytics per- spective is the subject of sleep.” Croke has first-hand experience with


the symptoms of sleep deprivation; as a truck driver in Australia, he logged over two million miles and says that he felt the


12 BEHIND THE WHEEL ~ Q4 Winter 2015 www.mmtanet.com


SIGNAL. THAT MEANS DRIVERS WHO GET OFF SHIFT AT SUNRISE AND THEN TRY TO SLEEP ARE WORKING AGAINST BIOLOGY.


EVEN BLUE SKIES CAN CONTRIBUTE TO SLEEP DEFICITS, SINCE HUMAN BRAINS ARE WIRED TO SEE THE COLOR BLUE AS A WAKE-UP


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32