The 24 Hours
Sleeping first costs you one night. Going without can cost everything else.
Eleven at night at the service station: you fill up and set off anyway. Leaving at night feels practical, with empty roads and nobody about. Tefft examined 6,845 drivers involved in crashes investigated by the US Department of Transportation between 2005 and 2007: compared with those who had slept seven to nine hours, the odds of being the one responsible were 1.3 times higher at six hours, 1.9 at five, 2.9 at four and 15.1 below four. Those who had slept under four hours stood out above all in single-vehicle crashes. Empty roads do not take away lost sleep, they just leave the driver alone with it. Sleeping first costs one night.
0:00The service station
0:07Empty roads
0:14Four hours
0:23The scale
0:32The departure
0:39The messageDetails 52 s · 9:16 · four languages · generated images, voice and music, declared as such · 2026-10-03 · Drive Awake
If the night departure is already decided, the sleep is taken beforehand, even in pieces: two hours in advance are worth more than a coffee at the service area. Under five hours slept, driving at night is not a hard choice: it is a choice to postpone. And when you are alone, with nobody to take over, the only thing that works is leaving later.
Eleven o'clock at night. You fill up at the service station and set off anyway.
Eleven at night at the service station: you fill up and set off anyway. From Chiasso to the Gotthard, the motorway was also designed with the landscape in mind: from 1962 to 1983, the architect Rino Tami was the aesthetic consultant for its construction.
Watch this passage (0:00) →
Driving at night seems practical: empty roads with hardly anyone around.
Leaving at night feels practical: empty roads, no queues, nobody about.
Watch this passage (0:07) →With less than four hours of sleep, drivers are found at fault fifteen times more often.
Tefft, 2018: 6,845 drivers involved in crashes investigated by the US Department of Transportation between 2005 and 2007. Compared with those who had slept seven to nine hours in the previous twenty-four, those who had slept under four hours were 15.1 times more likely to be the one responsible.
Tefft 2018 · Sleep · DOI 10.1093/sleep/zsy144
Watch this passage (0:14) →With five hours of sleep, the rate doubles. With six, it's a third higher. The baseline is seven to nine hours.
Tefft 2018: compared with seven to nine hours of sleep, the ratio is 1.3 at six hours, 1.9 at five, 2.9 at four and 15.1 below four. These are odds ratios for culpability, not absolute crash probabilities.
Tefft 2018 · Sleep · DOI 10.1093/sleep/zsy144
Watch this passage (0:23) →
Empty roads don't make up for lost sleep. They just leave you alone with it.
Empty roads do not take away lost sleep: they leave the driver alone with it.
Watch this passage (0:32) →The same lines you see in the video, side by side. This is where the gaps between languages show: a turn of phrase that does not hold, a word out of place, a figure that changes weight. If you find one, the button next to the line opens the report with hour, language and minute already filled in. All episodes on one page →
line 1 0:01
IT
Le undici di sera. Alla stazione di servizio si fa il pieno e si parte lo stesso.
FR
Onze heures du soir. À la station-service, on fait le plein et on part quand même.
DE
Elf Uhr abends. Man tankt und fährt trotzdem los.
EN
Eleven o'clock at night. You fill up at the service station and set off anyway.
line 2 0:08
IT
Guidare di notte sembra una scelta pratica: strade libere, nessuno in giro.
FR
Conduire de nuit semble pratique : routes dégagées, personne alentour.
DE
Nachts zu fahren wirkt praktisch: freie Strassen, niemand unterwegs.
EN
Driving at night seems practical: empty roads with hardly anyone around.
line 3 0:15
IT
Chi ha dormito meno di quattro ore risulta responsabile quindici volte più spesso.
FR
Après moins de quatre heures de sommeil, on est jugé responsable quinze fois plus souvent.
DE
Nach weniger als vier Stunden Schlaf gilt man fünfzehnmal häufiger als Unfallverursacher.
EN
With less than four hours of sleep, drivers are found at fault fifteen times more often.
line 4 0:23
IT
Con cinque ore il doppio, con sei un terzo in più. Il confronto è con chi ne ha dormite da sette a nove.
FR
Avec cinq heures de sommeil, c'est le double ; avec six, un tiers de plus. Le repère : sept à neuf heures.
DE
Bei fünf Stunden das Doppelte, bei sechs ein Drittel mehr. Vergleich: sieben bis neun Stunden.
EN
With five hours of sleep, the rate doubles. With six, it's a third higher. The baseline is seven to nine hours.
line 5 0:33
IT
Le strade libere non tolgono il sonno arretrato. Lo lasciano a te.
FR
Les routes dégagées n'effacent pas la dette de sommeil. Elles te la laissent.
DE
Freie Strassen holen den versäumten Schlaf nicht zurück. Sie lassen dich mit ihm allein.
EN
Empty roads don't make up for lost sleep. They just leave you alone with it.
line 6 0:40
IT
Partire dopo aver dormito costa una notte. Partire senza può costare tutto.
FR
Partir après avoir dormi coûte une nuit. Partir sans peut tout coûter.
DE
Erst schlafen, dann fahren kostet eine Nacht. Ohne Schlaf kann es alles kosten.
EN
Sleeping first costs you one night. Going without can cost everything else.
A question about this hour · 23:00
Before a long journey, how do you choose between leaving in the evening and leaving after a night's sleep?
There is no right answer: we are interested in the experience of people who drive, including for work.
The conversations happen on our channels. When there is one about this hour, we will link to it here.
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This episode is online. If something feels off, a word, a figure, a detail in the image, tell us below: two lines are enough. We read everything, and every correction goes into the diary, with its date.
We read every message. If it becomes a correction, the text changes here on the site and goes into the episode's diary, with its date and its reason. Corrections already made →
2026-10-03 · Drive Awake
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