Abstract:
Survey was carried out to identify human attitudes on micro-sleepiness and preventive measures with a view to develop a food product to combat micro-sleepiness. Statistical data pertaining to road accidents were collected from, Sri Lanka Police Traffic Division and were statistically analyzed to identify the social impact. Results revealed that peak level of road accidents is observed at 14.00 - 20.00h (38.2%) and intencity of micro-sleepiness falls at the same time period (37.36%) while14.00 to 16.00h is the peak time, 16.00 to 18.00h is the least; again 18.00 to 20.00h it reappears slightly. Peak hours of micro-sleepiness occurs at 14.00- 20.00h and it was also validated by the statistics from Sri Lanka police during last ten years. Even though respondents of the survey expressed that peak hours of micro-sleepiness is 14.00-16.00h, according to police reports, peak hours fall in between 18.00-20.00h. Reason for this disparity is due to stressful condition of the drivers, traffic jams, mental stress, rushing to attend urgent matters and bad light. Out of the interviewees, 69.27% strongly wanted to avoid micro-sleepiness and intend to spend LKR 10-20 on a commercial product to combat micro-sleepiness. As age old practices to supress micro-sleepiness are time taken, modern day respondents (51.64%) like to have a quick solution through a drink. Moreover, 46.94% respondents proposed a product developed from plant based materials and 94.5% expressed formulation of a product is of nationally importance. Survey further disclosed that about, 76.84%, 96.39% and 80.93% taking heavy diets for their breakfirst, lunch and dinner respectively. Therefore, food habits of morning and noon may cause for micro-sleepiness while dinner may cause for both, natural and micro-sleepiness due to heavy glicemic load of food. According to the study micro-sleepiness can be catogorized in to three zones such as low-risk zone (08.00-10.00h and 18.00-20.00h), managable zone (10.00-12.00h), and high-risk zone (14.00-16.00h).
