Sleepiness of the driver is a factor in about 20 of every 100 traffic accidents. Accidents are more common during the night than during the day. Many people drive at night despite being sleepy. Some people must drive at night to travel to or from work or because their jobs require nighttime driving. For these reasons, effective strategies to decrease sleepiness while driving could reduce accidents. Two common strategies to maintain wakefulness while driving are drinking coffee or other caffeinated drinks and napping. Several studies have examined the effects of coffee and napping on driving performance by using driving simulators. However, no studies have examined the effect of caffeine or napping on actual highway driving. (Author/publisher) The full report is titled “The Effects of Coffee and Napping on Nighttime Highway Driving. A Randomized Trial” (See C 36092 fo). It is in the 6 June 2006 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine (volume 144, pages 785-791). The authors are P. Philip, J. Taillard, N. Moore, S. Delord, C. Valtat, P. Sagaspe, and B. Bioulac. http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/144/11/785
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