Alcohol Effects
Recently, researches uncovered some interesting facts about alcohol consumption. Apparently, even a small amount of alcohol at lunchtime has the potential to transform you into a hazard on the road in the afternoon. There is a dangerous combination of afternoon tiredness and alcohol effects that made some volunteers, who were well under the drink-drive limit, to make big mistakes in a driving simulator.
These volunteers weren’t previously aware that their driving skills were seriously affected by just one drink. The tests’ results have offered new arguments to campaigners who are trying to accomplish more cuts in legal drunk driving definitions.
The human body has a natural rhythm that makes most people become less attentive in the middle of the afternoon. In the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University, a team of researchers conducted an interesting experiment.
They wanted to see if consuming just a small amount of alcohol would make the problem worse. So they had a group of healthy men drink a large vodka and orange with two cheese rolls, which the researchers considered to be the equivalent of a typical pub lunch. Some of the volunteers had a good sleep the night before, while others had an agitated night, with broken sleep and increase tiredness.
After consuming the alcohol drink, the team was given a breathalyzer test. The results showed they were up to almost half of the legal drink drive limit. The volunteers were then asked to drive in a car simulator.
The simulator was set up to reproduce a long stretch of highway. Their performance was then compared with men who remained sober and those who had reduced sleep the night before.
The tests showed that lack of sleep has extremely negative impact on someone’s driving skills. Sometimes drivers made serious mistakes like drifting between lanes as their attention wandered.
The impact of a little alcohol on tiredness, however, made their driving skills much worse, even some hours after the drink had been consumed. Of equal concern, was the fact that even the volunteers who did sleep well but had alcohol at lunchtime were not able to drive correctly.
This study was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. It generated some interesting conclusions and underlines the idea that even modest alcohol consumption has an effect on safe driving. The natural afternoon attention slowdown (even after a normal night’s sleep), along with a modest alcohol dose at lunchtime, generates an even more dangerous combination.
Resources
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Breathalyzers.net – distributes several different hand-held alcohol testers, including the highly regarded AlcoMate Digital hand-held unit for consumers, and the Lifeloc FC for professional use.
KeRo Corporation – manufactures and distributes the coin-operated, Alcohol Alert! talking alcohol breath tester. See an online demo of the machine here.