Getting enough sleep matters. Here’s why.

It’s common knowledge that 7-8 hours of sleep a night reduces the risk of illness and improves our mood. But we’re your driving coach, not your life coach. So, why is sleep important for us as road users?

Well, even a little sleep deprivation will slow your reactions, impair your ability to spot hazards and affect your decision making skills. That’s not a good mixture for safe driving.

But the real danger comes when you build up such a sleep debt that your body starts to take over. One thing you should know about the brain is that if it needs to sleep, it will - wherever and whenever.

Microsleeps.

If you’ve ever caught yourself nodding off somewhere public and had that rush of adrenaline that wakes you up with a jolt, chances are you had a microsleep.

If this happens on a train then no big deal - but falling asleep at the wheel, even for only a few seconds, could have serious consequences.

Tiredness-related crashes are usually the most severe because the driver can’t take any avoiding action - they just hit whatever is in front of them, at whatever speed they were travelling when they nodded off.

Here’s how far we’d travel during just a five-second microsleep at 50 and 70mph.