The summer holiday driving season is upon us, and with it comes new warnings about the right amount of sleep.

Roadsafe, the leading UK road safety group, has advised drivers to ensure that they get plenty of sleep in the period before they set out on any lengthy journey to avoid serious accidents this summer.

According to Roadsafe, around 300 deaths on UK roads every year can be attributed to driver sleepiness, while the Department for Transport has estimated that as much as 20 per cent of all accidents on major UK roads are through lack of sleep by drivers. Both have highlighted the early morning departure times along monotonous roads as being a severe risk, with microsleeps common at this time. Microsleeps are brief bouts of sleep that last as little as two seconds, and up to thirty seconds, although many motorists do not even realise they have experienced such an affect at the time. However, a matter of seconds is all it takes for an accident to happen.

The best solutions to avoid sleepiness are to share the driving load, make regular 15 minute break stops every two hours, have a good night’s rest before setting off and avoid where possible driving between 14:00 and 16:00 and also from midnight to 06:00, when the body’s circadian rhythms mean natural alertness is low. Despite popular belief, driving with the windows down or the stereo up does not increase alertness. A couple of cups of coffee or a quick 20 minute nap is far more helpful.