Get Plenty of Sleep the Night Before Getting enough sleep the night before your driving test can help reduce some of the pressure you're feeling. While eight hours is ideal, even six or seven hours of sleep will work wonders for your nerves and give you the energy you need to focus on the task.
Get plenty of sleep
Sleep is essential for our health and wellbeing, so it's important to get a good night's sleep the night before your driving test. Try to aim for between 7 to 8 hours of sleep if possible.
Get enough quality sleep before you begin driving. Be sure to have seven to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep before your trip. The worst time to begin your trip is after work - you will be tired already, even if you do not realise it. Aim not to travel more than eight to ten hours each day.
After synthesising the findings of 61 unique studies, we found having less than four to five hours of sleep in the previous 24 hours is associated with an approximate doubling of the risk of a vehicle crash. This is the same risk of a crash seen when drivers have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%.
Get at least 8 hours of sleep
Make sure you have a good night's sleep. The average person needs about 8 hours each night to function normally.
Does this mean that it is safe to drive if you sleep for only two hours? The answer to this question is an emphatic no. Most people will still be impaired from sleep deficiency even if they sleep for more than twice this amount.
After 24 hours awake, impairment is equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.1%. Even mild. View Source and short-term sleep deprivation can cause dangerous impairments to driving ability.
Crash risk is highest if you get fewer than four hours of shuteye a night, scientists found. That's like driving with a blood alcohol concentration roughly 1.5 times the legal limit, the researchers explained.
Driving On No Sleep Is As Dangerous As Driving Drunk
AAA estimates that about 21% of all car crashes that involve fatalities involve an instance of driver drowsiness where lack of sleep played a direct role in the accident.
Driving while sleep-deprived can be as dangerous as drunk driving, driving too fast, or driving during bad weather. That's right – if insomnia or restless legs keep you up night after night, or sleep apnea makes you feel tired and sleepy all the time, you could be dangerous behind the wheel.
The best time of day to take your test
Around two thirds (65%) of those taking evening tests pass. The worst time slot is between 11am and 1pm with a pass rate of 48%, while the early morning slot of 7am to 9am – when you would assume people would be at their most alert – returns a 50% pass rate.
Between 9am and 11am is generally a decent time to take a driving test because it's outside of rush hour and avoids the traffic increase in the run-up to lunchtime.
Eat and drink well
Don't drink energy drinks or coffee before a test as caffeine can heighten your nerves. Bananas are a great choice as they're full of vitamin B and contain tryptophan, the 'happy hormone', which helps in calming your nerves and keeping your mood uplifted.
Sleep deprivation can be caused by stress, depression, poor eating habits, or a condition such as sleep apnea. Getting a bad night of sleep now and then is annoying, but not a health risk.
The consequences of sleep deprivation at 24 hours are comparable to the cognitive impairment of someone with a blood alcohol content of 0.1 percent, according to past research. You have a reduced reaction time, slurred speech, and slowed thinking, says the Cleveland Clinic.
As you stay awake for longer than 18 hours, your body starts to build up pro-inflammatory proteins like IL-6, a blood marker associated with chronic health conditions and heart disease. Your number of immune cells begins to decline as well, as your body is deprived of its opportunity to make more.
Without other drivers, cyclists, traffic lights, and other road elements like stop signs, roundabouts and school zones, your route gets tedious. This dull routine is the time where you might start to feel drowsy; you're not being challenged in assessing your surrounds as the past 100 and next 100kms are the same.
After 24 hours without sleep, you're cognitively impaired. In fact, at just 17 hours without sleep, your judgment, memory, and hand-eye coordination skills are all suffering. At this point, irritability has likely set in.
We do not recommend sleeping for only one hour at night. Some research suggests that lost sleep can take years off your life and that you may not be able to catch up on the lost hours of rest. This is because consistent sleep deprivation can cause a myriad of chronic health issues in people over time.
Sleeping a lot isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sleep is important. Not getting enough sleep puts you at risk for health problems, from heart disease to obesity to diabetes. However, sleeping a lot all of a sudden when you didn't before might be a reason to look closely at what is going on with your health.