Holiday Hit with Sleepy Drivers: Tips for Staying Awake on the Road this Weekend

The 4th of July can be a great time to catch up with friends and family. However, this may also mean traveling far distances to do so.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges anyone on the road to make sure they're steady at the wheel. Sleepy drivers may be more common during holidays than you think.

The organization released a report on drowsiness Thursday, showing the percentage of sleepy drives and providing important tips on how to stay awake while driving. With the help of a survey, 10 states and Puerto Rico, composed of 92,000 respondents, were examined.

Findings showed that about 4 percent of adult respondents reported having fallen asleep at the wheel in the past month. All respondents were surveyed from the 2011-2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System surveys. Similarly, the 2009-2010 survey included 19 states and the District of Columbia, with 4.2 percent of adult respondents reporting the same sleepy behavior. Twenty-five percent of annual motor vehicle accidents are a result of this common problem.

These suggestions support certain cautionary measures to take when driving, such as not to consume alcohol or certain sedatives before driving, getting adequate rest, taking nape breaks, if needed, and even coffee breaks, and potentially switching driving positions, if possible. The report also cautions that if individuals feel just too exhausted to continue, they should pull over and take a break.

As about 41 million Americans will be traveling at least 50 miles throughout this holiday weekend, and most of them (85 percent), will do so by car.

"Falling asleep while driving is clearly dangerous, but drowsiness also impairs the ability to drive safely even if drivers do not fall asleep," the authors noted, in a news release. "Studies have observed that drowsy drivers take longer to react, are less attentive to their environment, and have impaired decision-making skills, all of which can contribute to vehicle crashes."