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Driving when you are tired is a serious risk in traffic. It impairs your concentration, reaction time, and judgement, often without you noticing how quickly it happens.
In this chapter, you will learn how fatigue affects driving, which warning signs to watch for, and what to do if you become tired behind the wheel.
Fatigue can seriously impair your driving ability and poses a major risk in traffic. Often, your driving ability becomes impaired faster and to a greater extent than you realise.
How tired you are is affected not only by how you feel at the moment, but also by how much sleep you have had during the last 24 hours and over the last few nights. Even if you do not feel particularly tired, too little sleep can still noticeably reduce your ability to drive safely.
After 24 hours without sleep, your driving ability may be impaired to a similar extent as with a blood alcohol level of 0.8 per mille.
Fatigue is not caused only by lack of sleep. It can also be caused by medication, illness, or sleep problems. Examples of things that may make you unfit to drive include sleeping tablets, sedatives, some allergy medicines, fever, infections, and sleep disorders. You are always responsible for judging whether you are fit to drive.
It is therefore not just unsuitable to drive when you are very tired. It is also prohibited if your tiredness makes you unable to drive safely. In the traffic law, fatigue is mentioned together with illness, alcohol and other substances, which shows how seriously the law treats tiredness in traffic.
"Vehicles must not be driven by anyone who, due to illness, fatigue, the influence of alcohol, other stimulating or anaesthetic substances or for other reasons, cannot drive the vehicle in a safe manner." –Trafikförordningen 3 kap, 1 §
It is prohibited to drive if you are so tired that you cannot drive safely
Fatigue affects many of the abilities that are important for safe driving.
Fatigue impairs your:
Fatigue is therefore a major risk in traffic. Fatigue is estimated to be a contributing factor in around 20% of all traffic accidents involving personal injury.
Accidents related to fatigue are often single-vehicle accidents and are especially common late at night and early in the morning.
Fatigue and alcohol are among the most common causes of reduced driving ability.
Fatigue is estimated to be a contributing factor in around one in five traffic accidents involving personal injury
Fatigue rarely comes suddenly. Your body often gives several warning signs before you become so tired that you risk nodding off. It is important to recognise your own signals and act on them in time.
People notice fatigue in different ways and in different orders, but most people will recognise many of the signs listed below.
If you continue driving despite the early signs, the fatigue often becomes more noticeable and the risk increases.
It is important to recognise and pay attention to your body's signs of fatigue
At the very first signs of fatigue, you must consider whether it is safe to continue driving. If you experience strong signs of fatigue, you must stop as soon as possible, because the risk is then high that you will suddenly nod off, no matter how hard you try to stay awake. You must learn to interpret and respect your signs of fatigue.
Fatigue is not only shown by the body's signals, but also in your driving. For example, you may begin to drive at an uneven speed, find it harder to keep the car properly positioned in the lane, miss signs or exits, drift too close to the edge of the road or the centre line, and react later than usual in different traffic situations.
In some situations, the risk of fatigue is especially high, for example when driving at night, in the dark, and when you are getting close to your destination. At such times, it is important to pay extra attention to your body's signs of fatigue and not continue driving for too long.
The risk of fatigue is particularly high late at night and early in the morning. This is when the body's natural daily rhythm makes it easier to become tired and harder to stay awake.
The risk is also especially high during the final part of a journey, as you may become less alert. This is particularly true if you are driving home, because you often know the road well and can be lulled into a false sense of security.
The risk also increases after a long work shift or too little sleep. Even if you only feel slightly tired when you set off, fatigue can quickly increase as you drive.
Alcohol makes you more tired and reduces your ability to notice signs of fatigue, which can contribute to fatigue-related accidents. The same is true of certain medicines and other substances that make you drowsy or less alert.
The highest risk of falling asleep while driving is late at night and early in the morning
Driving long distances without resting also increases the risk of fatigue, no matter what time of day you drive. The risk is especially great if the driving is monotonous and does not require your full attention – for example if you drive on a motorway with little or no traffic.
Remember: If tiredness starts to affect your driving, you should stop and rest rather than try to continue driving.
Microsleep is a very short, involuntary sleep episode, most often caused by lack of sleep. While driving, it is extremely dangerous because for a few seconds you may be unaware of what is happening in traffic and unable to react.
Just a second of microsleep can be enough for you to drift into the oncoming lane, run off the road or fail to notice that the traffic ahead is braking.
If you nod off behind the wheel, even for a very brief moment, you must stop immediately at the first suitable place. Once you have stopped, you must not continue driving until you are properly rested.
If you do not stop and instead continue driving despite the fatigue, there is a high risk that you will not only nod off again, but actually fall asleep and drive off the road or collide with another vehicle or road user.
Accidents caused by drivers falling asleep behind the wheel and driving off the road, or into an oncoming vehicle, are unfortunately too common
The best protection against fatigue in traffic is to prevent it. Plan your driving so that you are well rested, take breaks in time, and avoid driving for too long without a break.
There are several ways to reduce the risk of becoming tired when driving:
Opening a window, turning up the music, snacking, or trying to force yourself to stay alert may help only for a very short time at best. Such actions can never replace sleep, rest, or a proper break.
If you are too tired to drive safely, you must not drive. If you start to feel tired while driving, you should stop and rest.
If you are too tired to drive safely, you must stop and rest until you are well rested enough to continue
A short nap of about 20 minutes is an effective way to reduce fatigue. After waking up, give yourself time to become fully alert before you continue driving.
A short walk and a cup of coffee can help temporarily, but they are rarely enough on their own if you are tired. If you are too tired to drive safely, you will usually need to sleep for a while before continuing.
If you feel more alert after resting, you may continue driving, but you must then be even more attentive to signs of fatigue. Once you have started to feel tired, the risk is high that it will happen again.
