Auto insurer wants teens driving on full tank of sleep

Teens have the highest crash rates in the country. They also are likely to have the least sleep.

One national auto insurance carrier, GEICO, agrees with a growing number of sources, including the National Sleep Foundation, and its partners, including Awake In America, that the problem could be reduced by a good night’s sleep.

Two critical factors collide when teens are in their early driving years:

1. they need nearly 9.5 hours of sleep every night to accommodate an upswing in growth and hormone development;
2. they get far less sleep than they need – an average of 7.4 hours a night, considerably less for many.

Compounding the problem further, researchers say that teens’ biological clocks are set so that they to fall asleep later at night and wake up later in the morning, a schedule which is impossible to follow due to early morning school starts for most teens.

It all points to a nation of very sleepy teenagers.

National Sleep Awareness Week 2008

Beginning tomorrow, Monday, March 3, and continuing through next Sunday, March 9, National Sleep Awareness Week 2008 will be the focal point in the sleep community to help draw attention to many issues about sleep-related issues, including sleep disorders, sleep deprivation, and sleep hygiene, overall.

During National Sleep Awareness Week 2008 (NSAW 2008), GEICO will be working to alert parents with teen drivers to observe their teen’s sleep habits and adjust them so teens get more sleep.

Teens must have more sleep to stay alert, make sound judgments, and when driving to maintain clear thinking and quick reflexes.

"Your teen may be sleep deprived if he or she can’t wake up in the morning, is irritable late in the day, falls asleep spontaneously during the day and sleeps at great length on weekends," the company is advising parents.

While that sounds like a universal description of most teens most of the time, it could be the gap in their sleep hours that is at the heart of a lot of tragic adolescent behavior.

The driving danger is clear. Drowsy driving is a principle cause of traffic crashes each year, and young drivers are particularly vulnerable since they are operating most of the time on much less sleep than they need. See www.drowsydriving.org for more.

Rework Teens’ Schedules Around Sleep Needs

It’s important for both parents and teens to recognize the signs of fatigue and rework daily schedules to allow for healthier sleep cycles.

It won’t be easy. Teens have a lot to keep them up on school nights: studies, anxiety over grades, after school sports and social activities that delay study time, relationship issues, over stimulation from media sources such as popular computer sites, computer gaming, and an overload of cell phone use and text messaging.

What Parents Can Do

What can parents do to help their teens get more rest:

• Build time-management skills. Encourage teens to see how long tasks will take and plan realistically to complete school assignments. Get them to start early and not procrastinate. Then they won’t have to burn the midnight oil and they can enjoy a good night’s rest.
• Establish a reasonable bedtime and stick to it.
• Create a bedtime routine that winds down the pace. The Mayo Clinic suggests a warm bath or shower, a book, relaxing activities, and for 30 minutes before lights out, no loud music, video games, phone calls or Internet use.
• Eliminate caffeine drinks in the evening.
• Complete exercise and sports programs early in the evening, well before bedtime.
• Determine if any medications may be affecting sleep.

GEICO offers an online library of information to help keep teens safe on the road which may be downloaded from the GEICO site or ordered from the fourth largest private passenger auto insurer in the United States. Overall, the company provides auto insurance coverage for more than eight million policyholders, insuring more than 13 million vehicles.

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