There are conflicting reports about weight - some people believe being fat can cushion you in the event of a car accident, others say that it can contribute to one. But generally everybody seems to agree that if you are sleepy and overweight, your chances of having a car accident will increase.

Workers across the UK are being pulled from all sides trying to complete work on time, being underpaid, overcharged, eating on the run or while driving and trying to complete projects to schedule. This can contribute to a bad diet, bad health and in turn, weight gain.

Most people do not get enough sleep

Sleep is vital to our health yet millions of people across the UK do not get enough sleep or suffer from sleep deprivation problems. Despite the fact that sleep experts recommend that adults get between 8-9 hours sleep, most people only get 5-6.

Sixty per cent of adults report sleep problems and 40 per cent experience sleepiness in the daytime at work. Most people think this is normal and so don't alter their lifestyles or routine to improve their sleep patterns and improve their health.

Failure to get enough sleep can have disastrous consequences, including chronic fatigue syndrome, ME, confusion, inability to concentrate, impaired short-term memory, anxiety, insomnia, bowel problems and a host of other disorders.

Struggling to cope and maintain a busy and hectic schedule and the demands of employers can force people to stay awake way beyond the time they would normally go to sleep. Working at home after work is also extremely common, to cope with a large workload and to get ahead.

Being overweight can accelerate car accident rates

To complicate things further, the number of hours slept has an influence on the risk of obesity which in turn has an influence on sleepiness and the rate of car accidents.

Confused? Then let's not even go into the sleeping disorder sleep apnea. Let's just say that if you have sleep apnea and don't maintain your diet, you can become even more overweight while you sleep which can make you more sleepy and more likely to have a car accident.

In brief, sleep apnea relates to breathing while sleeping. Apnea comes from the Greek word meaning "without breath". People with untreated apnea stop breathing repetitively during sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for more than a minute.

Sleep apnea is extremely common but it is not very commonly known. You can read more at www.sleepapnea.org.

And so it goes on. Those a little fat around the middle should take note. The Obesity Research Centre in the USA says that there is a direct link between being obese and the number of hours we sleep each night. Other factors, like physical activity, age and depression make no difference to weight gain.

Unfortunately, lack of sleep, inability to sleep and weight has its price. Car accidents and loss of life on the road is one of them. The only solution is to try to be as normal as possible. Eat, maintain a normal diet, exercise and whatever you do, make sure you sleep.

The Sleep Foundation at www.sleepfoundation.org, an independent non profit organisation dedicated to sleep disorders, has more information about sleep and interactive models to explore sleep behaviour.

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