Jessica P.

Sleepiness increases a risk for car accidents in teenagers. Feb 15, 2010. Science Daily.

A recent study shows that teenagers between the age of 18 and 21, who get a lack of sleep, double their risk of getting into a car accident. Researchers took 339 teenagers with a drivers license to conduct their study. They determined if the students got a lack of sleep by simple questions. The questions were about sleep habits, sleep disorders, any feeling of daytime sleepiness and more. Of the 339 students, 80 of them had been in accidents previous to the questioning. Of the 80, 56 percent of them admitted to being sleepy while driving. Only 35 percent of the remaining students, that had not been in an accident, admitted to being sleepy. The independent variable in this experiment would be the amount of sleep the student had before driving. The dependent variable would be if the student got in a car accident. I think this was a good experiment because it shows that if you are tired you are more likely to get into an accident. It also backs up what people think about drivers who don't give the road their full attention to the road, and what happens. This experiment could be improved by doing more detailed questioning on the people who got in the accident, by asking them for more a specific answer to their question. I think a good follow-up experiment would be the probability of getting into an accident if you are a teenager on the cell phone.