You probably know that most of your body is affected when you do not sleep well. What you might not realize is that it can also lead to more injuries for others around you, thus inviting personal injury lawsuits. If the sleep deprivation continues, it can even impact the way that your case is handled in the long run.

Can Sleep Deprivation lead to Personal Injury Cases? How?

Yes. When you haven’t slept well, you are much more likely to make a bad decision, such as to get behind the wheel of a car despite being drowsy. Roughly 6 percent of crashes in the United States are caused by drowsy drivers.

Additionally, people can and often do underestimate how tired they are and just how badly that can affect their reaction times. Semi-autonomous vehicles can also make people feel like driving drowsy is safer, however, that is not the case, since reaction time on the road is extremely important in order to mitigate the risk of accidents.

Drowsy driving is much more common than you might think – approximately one in 25 adult drivers have reported falling asleep while driving in the last thirty days. Chances are that you’ve been one of them, if you’ve driven before your coffee has kicked in.

Signs of Drowsy Driving:

• Nodding off at the wheel
• Losing track of where you are in your lane
• Missing exits
• Excessive yawning
• Lack of focus
• Bobbing your head

If you catch yourself doing any of these, pull into the next coffee shop you see and drink something with caffeine in it. If you have time, find someplace safe to rest for a few minutes or to do some jumping jacks. This will help you to make it through your day.

Can Sleep Deprivation lead to Worse Outcomes for Personal Injury Cases? How?

Yes, whether you are the client or the attorney. If you are the client, you are less likely to remember details that are important to helping you get through the case. You are also going to have a harder time keeping your cool in a courtroom because everything stimulating you in there is designed to make you more stressed out and angry. It can make it incredibly difficult to get through the case if you are needed to testify.

How Can You Stop Sleep Deprivation?

In order to get a good night’s sleep, you need to make sure that you have enough time and space to do that. Setting yourself a strict bedtime and wake up time is a great first step to making sure you are well rested. You can also build a routine before you go to bed that helps you to relax so that you can actually sleep when you get there.

As for where you sleep, you want your bedroom to be cool, dark and comfortable. If you’re not sure when you last bought your mattress, it’s time for a new one. Mattresses are only really as supportive as they claim for about six years. After that, they begin to either sag or stiffen, making it much harder for you to sleep well.