The Perils of Micro Sleep – A Major Cause of North Carolina Auto Accidents?
What causes many North Carolina drowsy driving accidents? The answer may be something that very few people have heard of: micro sleeping.
When human beings get really fatigued, and they try to stay awake through that fatigue, the brain can use automatic mechanisms to override your willpower to stay awake. Scary stuff!
Consider, for instance, the phenomenon of micro sleeping. Essentially, when you prevent yourself from sleeping for long enough, the brain begins to “shut itself down” in short little bursts. You lose consciousness. You actually go into REM sleep for seconds a time. This appears to be the brain’s way of sending out an SOS — “I need sleep pronto!”
It’s probably a very good thing that we have the capability to microsleep, since it allows the brain to replenish even when we must stay awake for survival reasons. But if you are a driver, microsleeping can be incredibly dangerous. During these little bursts of sleep – when you are completely unconscious – you can travel great distances, especially if you’re zipping along at or above highway speeds. Depending on how fast you travel and how long you micro sleep, you can go 100 feet or longer while totally unconscious.
And remember: people who microsleep often have no idea that they are sleeping! They think that they’re awake. If you talk to them, they will tell you “I’m fine, I’m awake.”
When you combine this microsleeping danger with real world highway events that require snap judgments – i.e. immediate reactions – you can see how the whole thing can lead to chaos.
If you microsleep, for instance, at a moment when you need to make a sharp corrective turn on an icy Charlotte suburban street in the middle of winter, your reaction time will be seriously delayed, and you will have a greater chance of getting into a crash.
How do you know whether microsleeping was involved in your car accident?
The Charlotte auto accident team here at the Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo can help you investigate and understand what happened in your accident. Whether someone hit you at a stop light, or you were a passenger in a vehicle driven by someone who nodded off behind the wheel, our experienced team is standing by to provide a free and confidential case evaluation for you.
