The National DATELINE NBC Driving Test

Questions and answers along with Why for each question:

"SELECT YOUR ANSWERS AND SAVE YOUR LIFE"

• Airdated: Tuesday, June 27th 2000
• Producer: Benita Noel
• Correspondent: Dennis Murphy
• 1 hour special on sleepy driving

QUESTION #1 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. You rarely get sleepy after any meal (0 POINTS)
B. You often get sleepy or drowsy after breakfast or dinner (10 POINTS)
C. You often get sleepy or drowsy after lunch (20 POINTS)

WHY? - If you've had enough sleep, no meal should make you tired. In fact, it's a myth that a big lunch makes you tired or sleepy. If you do tend to get tired after lunch, it's not the food at all, it's probably because you are severely sleep deprived, or you may have a sleep disorder. And most people don't get tired after breakfast or dinner, so if you do, it's also very likely that you have a sleep disorder or are sleep deprived.

QUESTION #2 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. You usually take about 9-10 minutes to fall asleep after going to bed (0 POINTS)
B. It takes you longer than 10 minutes to fall asleep (10 POINTS)
C. You usually go to sleep as soon as your head hits the pillow, in 5 minutes or less (20 POINTS)

WHY? - It takes a normal person 9-10 minutes to fall asleep. If you fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow, you are seriously sleep deprived. At that level of sleepiness, you are highly susceptible to falling asleep while driving. If you take longer than 10 minutes, you may have insomnia and again, could be at risk for falling asleep at the wheel.

QUESTION #3 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. You usually sleep the same number of hours, even on the weekends (0 POINTS)
B. You usually sleep longer on weekends (10 POINTS)

WHY? - If you tend to sleep in on weekends, sleeping more hours than you do during the week, it means you are trying to make up the sleep you lost during the week. You have what is known as a "sleep debt"‚ you're sleep deprived and your body is trying to catch up on the sleep you've cheated yourself out of all week.

QUESTION #4 PICK ONE ANSWER: How many nights a week do you feel like you don't get enough sleep?

A. 0-2 nights (5 POINTS)
B. 3-4 nights (10 POINTS)
C. 5-7 nights (20 POINTS)

WHY? - The more nights you feel you don't get enough sleep, the more sleep deprived you are, and the more hazardous you become behind the wheel. As our sleepy drivers showed earlier, even a few hours of sleep loss every night can add up to big trouble by the end of just one week.

QUESTION #5 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. You get up regularly after a full night's sleep without an alarm clock ( 0 POINTS)
B. You get up when the alarm clock goes off (5 POINTS)
C. You have to hit the snooze button when the alarm clock goes off in the morning (10 POINTS)

WHY? - If you are getting enough sleep, you should be able to wake up without the help of an alarm clock. If you repeatedly hit the snooze button, you are probably very sleep deprived.

QUESTION #6 PICK ALL THAT APPLY TO YOU: (*YOU CAN CHOOSE AS MANY AS FOUR ANSWERS HERE)

A. You rarely get sleepy unless it's your bedtime (0 POINTS)
B. You are likely to fall asleep on airplanes or as a passenger in a car (5 POINTS)
C. You often feel sleepy or doze off while sitting quietly with a book or watching TV (ADD 10 POINTS)
D. You often feel drowsy in meetings or at the movies (ADD 20 POINTS)
E. You often get drowsy when stopped in traffic for a few minutes (ADD 20 POINTS)

WHY? - Even small amounts of sleep deprivation will make you likely to fall asleep in quiet situations, especially if you're sitting in a car on a warm afternoon, or on an airplane with the monotonous drone of the engines. And it's one thing to fall asleep when you're alone and it's quiet - if you tend to feel sleepy even in meetings or places where there is a fair amount of activity around you, you are probably very sleep deprived.

QUESTION #7 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. You never snore (0 POINTS)
B. You snore sometimes (5 POINTS)
C. You snore often and so loudly that your partner complains or leaves the bedroom (20 POINTS)

WHY? - The reason you get so many points if you snore loudly is there is a huge correlation between snoring and sleep disorders. People who snore loudly every night are at high risk for sleep apnea, a disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness and puts you at high risk for falling asleep at the wheel. Millions of people who have chronic snoring problems actually have undiagnosed sleep disorders that could be treated with proper medical intervention.

QUESTION #8 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. You are between the ages of 16 and 29 (20 POINTS)
B. You are between the ages of 30 and 60 (10 POINTS)
C. You are 61 or over ( 0 POINTS)

WHY? - If you're between 16 and 29, you have the highest crash risk for sleepy driving. That's because you need more sleep at this age than any other time in your life, especially if you're a teenager, but your busy lifestyle probably means you aren't getting enough sleep to begin with. If you're between 30 and 60, you're also at risk because this is when sleep disorders are most prevalent. In fact, 30 million Americans, 24% of all men in this age group, and 9% of all women, have undiagnosed sleep disorders that are potentially dangerous.

QUESTION #9 PICK ONE ANSWER:You've just finished work, you're beat and you've got a long drive home ahead of you

A. You would normally hit the road right away (5 POINTS)
B. You would normally try to relax a little by stopping for one quick nightcap (20 POINTS)
C. You would stop for a meal that might include a couple of drinks, but not enough to make you drunk (20 POINTS)

WHY? - It's never a good idea to try and complete a long drive if you're tired, but what's even worse is adding alcohol to the mix. When you're tired, even one drink can have disastrous results - you may be well below the legal drinking limit but the combination of sleepiness and alcohol can drastically alter your ability to react. That one drink you normally handle with no problem can actually make you feel and act as if you've had 3 or 4 drinks. A 1996 NHTSA study found 20 percent of drivers involved in sleep related crashes had also had a little bit to drink.

QUESTION #10 PICK ONE ANSWER:

A. I have a very short drive home from work, or don't drive to work (0 POINTS)
B. My drive home from work is mostly on country roads (10 POINTS)
C. My drive home from work is mostly on city roads (10 POINTS)
D. My drive home from work is mostly on suburban roads (10 POINTS)
E. My drive home is mostly on freeways (20 POINTS)

WHY? - Any monotonous or boring activity will promote sleepiness, especially if you already have a sleep debt. So if you're tired, boring roads, especially long stretches of freeway, will make you particularly vulnerable to falling asleep at the wheel.

QUESTION #11 PICK ONE ANSWER: It's late on a Friday night and you've got a 6 hour drive to get to your vacation spot by Saturday morning. Would you

A. Decide to get a good night's sleep and hit the road in the morning, even though you won't arrive until Saturday afternoon (0 POINTS)
B. Take a nap, then get up at 3am to make the drive (20 POINTS)
C. Drive through the night to arrive by 4am (20 POINTS)

WHY? - Driving all night is never a good idea. You are not only losing sleep, you're driving at a time when your body thinks it should be asleep. Your reaction time is likely to be slow and your all night trip may be a dangerous one. Getting up at 3am is better as you will at least have had a few hours sleep, but it's still not a great idea as most people's body clocks don't wind up again until after 6am. The best, and safest, bet is to get a good night's sleep before hitting the road.

QUESTION #12 PICK ONE ANSWER: You're on the road, making that long trip and you feel a little sleepy so you pull over to grab some food at a rest area

A. You just decide to grab a cup or two of coffee (5 POINTS)
B. You go for junk food like hamburgers and fries (10 POINTS)
C. You stick with sugary vending machine foods (10 POINTS)
D. You decide to try and find a decent meal (10 POINTS)

WHY? - It's a great idea to get off the road, but it makes no difference what kind of food you choose, none of it will help keep you awake. Even foods loaded with sugar will only give you a short burst of energy, followed by a dangerous slump. And coffee is a gamble. Two cups of a caffeinated drink may give you a short energy boost for about 30 minutes to an hour. The problem is everyone reacts very differently to caffeine, and the caffeine content in drinks and pills varies greatly. There's no way to tell how long the caffeine will take to enter your system or how long it will last, so if you rely on caffeine to make it through a long drive, you're playing a dangerous game of roulette and you may not make it all.

QUESTION #13 PICK ONE ANSWER: You're back on the road and you still feel tired, so you try turning up the radio

A. You turn on mellow country, classical or jazz music (20 POINTS)
B. You turn on something loud and energetic like dance music or rock (20 POINTS)
C. You select a radio talk show or ball game (20 POINTS)
D. You leave the radio off (20 POINTS)

WHY? - Like food, the radio will do absolutely no good helping you stay awake on the road, no matter what you listen to. You will be jolted awake temporarily but as soon as your body adjusts to the change in noise level, your sleepiness will take over again.

QUESTION #14 PICK ALL THAT APPLY TO YOU: (*YOU CAN CHOOSE AS MANY AS FIVE ANSWERS HERE) When you feel tired on the road, you normally do this to keep yourself awake

A. You pull over to take a short walk or do some roadside exercise (10 POINTS)
B. You slap your face (20 POINTS)
C. You talk to yourself (20 POINTS)
D. You blast the air conditioning (20 POINTS)
E. You open the window (20 POINTS)

WHY? - Sorry, none of these things work either. They'll jolt you awake for a few minutes, and that's all. Getting out of the car for a walk or some stretching is the best choice as it will at least get you off the road, but it's not a solution. As soon as you get back on the road, you'll soon start feeling sleepy again.

QUESTION #15 PICK ONE ANSWER: It's now 2 hours into your drive and you've still got 4 hours to go, but you're really feeling tired. Your eyes are getting heavy and you even feel your head bob

A. This would prompt you to pull over and nap for say 30 or 45 minutes (5 POINTS)
B. This would prompt you to pull over and take a quick 15 or 20 minute nap (10 POINTS)
C. This would be signal that you really need to get off the road for a few minutes (20 POINTS)

WHY? - Getting off the road at this point is an absolute MUST, but the truth is, if you've waited this long, you've waited too long. You should have stopped driving long before your eyes started closing or your chin started hitting your chest. When you're that tired, sleep can take you over like a seizure, with no warning at all, and you're at extreme risk for causing an accident. As soon as you start feeling tired, you need to pull over and take a nap. It's the only thing that works. And we're not talking a catnap here, even 30 minutes isn't long enough if you still have 4 hours to go.

ADD UP YOUR SCORE AND SEE BELOW

FINAL SCORING TALLY:

• 0 TO 75 POINTS: You are at minimal risk for falling asleep at the wheel
• 80 TO 150 POINTS: You are at moderate risk for falling asleep at the wheel
• 155 TO 355 POINTS: You are at severe risk for falling asleep at the wheel

IF YOUR SCORE PUTS YOU IN EITHER THE MODERATE OR SEVERE CATEGORY, YOU SHOULD IMMEDIATELY RE-EVALUATE YOUR SLEEP HABITS. MOST PEOPLE NEED 8 HOURS OF SLEEP A NIGHT. SOME PEOPLE NEED LESS, BUT YOU SHOULD MAKE SURE YOU'RE GETTING THE AMOUNT YOU NEED. IF YOU HAVE A HIGH SCORE, IT'S PROBABLY A GOOD IDEA TO SEE A DOCTOR FOR FURTHER EVALUATION.

During the testing period 120,746 people completed the Dateline Quiz and the response to each category from this group was:

• Category 1: 0 to 75 points Percentile 1%
• Category 2: 80 to 150 points Percentile 30%
• Category 3: 155 to 375 points Percentile 69%

As we found in this investigation far too many of the above subjects whom completed this quiz are driving to sleepy to be safe.

A POTENTIAL LIFE SAVING TIP! IF YOU THINK YOU'LL BE ABLE TO TELL WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO FALL ASLEEP, YOU'RE WRONG. MOST DRIVERS WHO DO FALL ASLEEP ARE SURPRISED. THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT YOURSELF IS TO GET ADEQUATE SLEEP - AND TO HEED DANGER SIGNS WHEN YOU'RE ON THE ROAD. OBVIOUSLY IF YOU CAN'T STOP YAWNING, YOU'RE EYES START CLOSING, OR YOU HAVE TROUBLE KEEPING YOUR HEAD UP, YOU NEED TO GET OFF THE ROAD IMMEDIATELY. BUT HERE ARE TWO THINGS THAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU, IF YOU FIND YOU OFTEN HAVE WANDERING, DISCONNECTED THOUGHTS OR YOU DON'T REMEMBER DRIVING THE LAST FEW MILES, THOSE ARE BOTH SIGNS YOU'RE IN TROUBLE. THE RULE OF THUMB THEN IS GETTING OFF THE ROAD AND TAKE A NAP.

HERE'S A GENERAL FORMULA YOU CAN USE - A 20 MINUTE NAP WILL BUY YOU ABOUT 30 MINUTES TO AN HOUR ON THE ROAD. BUT BE CAREFUL, SINCE INDIVIDUALS CAN BE EXTREMELY VARIABLE IN RESPONSE TO NAPS AND NAP TIMES.