It is a frightening but true fact and especially disconcerting when you consider that most Americans are sleep deprived.

The study, under the direction of Dr. Nicholas Moore at the Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Bordeaux in France published as a letter in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that drivers who were either drunk or sleepy were at least twice as likely to be responsible for a vehicle accident compared to their well-rested or sober counterparts.

Researchers analyzed information from 679 drivers who were admitted to a hospital in southwest France who were admitted to the hospital for more than 24 hours because of a serious accident between 2007 and 2009.

Christopher Drake, an associate scientist at the Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders and Research Center in Detroit, said the findings do not change what was already known, but the study is still “interesting.”
“We know from experimental studies that just four hours of sleep loss will produce as much impairment as a six pack. If you have a whole night of sleep loss, that’s equivalent to having a blood alcohol content of 0.19,” Drake, who was not involved with the new research, told Reuters Health.