You can encounter various things that cause various negative emotions such as anxiety, boredom, or feeling impatient to reach your destination on the road. Quoted from Hellosehat.com, this condition can cause excessive secretion of the hormone cortisol and is dangerous if it occurs for a long time.
The level of stress when driving is closely related to the length of travel time which can be exacerbated by traffic jams or other problems. If not treated, stress while driving can cause various negative impacts on health as below.
1. Increased Blood Sugar and Cholesterol Levels
Stress when driving is caused by you not being active enough, as a result your body is slower to metabolize blood sugar. Cholesterol levels in the blood can also get worse over time due to continuous exposure to stress.
2. Blood Pressure Rises
Especially during rush hour, driving conditions can easily affect your blood pressure. Plus there is less rest because of the high activity in the field. Stress with increasing blood pressure every day can trigger heart disease.
3. Sleep Disorders
Feeling tired after driving can cause a decrease in the quality of your night's rest. This gets worse if you experience stress while driving at night because "fight or flight" conditions can make it difficult to fall asleep and make you more tired the next day.
In fact, microsleep attacks can occur if you experience sleep disorders. Even if you only fall asleep for 1 second while driving, it is enough to make the car out of control for dozens of meters.
4. Triggers an unhealthy lifestyle
Stress while driving is very draining because it tends to occur over a long period of time. As a result, you feel very tired and lose time to exercise. Stressful conditions trigger unhealthy consumption patterns because they stimulate the desire to eat foods high in sugar and fat.
5. Back Pain
Stress makes you less aware of your posture when sitting while driving. If this happens for a long time, it can cause various disorders in the back which are characterized by pain.
6. Emotions Are Easily Triggered
The complexity of the problems above can trigger instant situations that are difficult, namely easily triggered emotions. Not only is it bad for your health because it forces your body to work extra hard, emotions can also trigger accidents.
Drivers who are emotional usually have difficulty controlling themselves and can act aggressively on the road. A commotion between drivers and even an accident can occur if you fail to control your emotions.
7. Triggers body-borne diseases
The body working hard when stressed can cause several problematic organs to have difficulty operating. Like the stomach feeling sore and uncomfortable due to increased stomach acid in people with digestive disorders.
Or severe asthma attacks in asthma sufferers because they cannot control their body's breathing. Even fatal disorders such as heart attacks for drivers who have congenital heart disease.
