Two days before the start of its annual awareness campaign, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) will bring government officials, automakers, safety advocates and sleep physicians into the same room at the National Press Club. The Drowsy Driving Forum, scheduled for October 29, 2026, precedes Drowsy Driving Prevention Week, which runs November 1 through 7.
The Forum marks an expansion for a campaign that, according to NSF, has spent nearly two decades addressing preventable crashes, injuries and deaths linked to drowsy driving. This year’s event is built around two separate panels of thought leaders drawn from government, transportation safety, sleep health, clinical sleep medicine and industry.
National Sleep Foundation Taps a Former Federal Safety Chief to Moderate
Mark R. Rosekind, PhD, will moderate the proceedings. Rosekind chairs the board of the National Sleep Foundation and previously served as Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and as a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), giving him a vantage point on both the regulatory and investigative sides of roadway safety.
John Lopos, Chief Executive Officer of the National Sleep Foundation, framed the gathering as a call for collaboration. “Now is the time for organizations with a shared interest in public health and safety to do more together to help save lives,” Lopos said. He added that the foundation’s role extends beyond raising awareness, and that by establishing a Forum, organizations can be informed and aligned around evidence-based solutions and practical tools.
NHTSA, NTSB and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation Lead the Leadership Panel
The first session, the Leadership Panel, will bring senior figures from federal roadway safety agencies together with the automotive industry. The discussion will center on national priorities, emerging challenges and actions that can reduce drowsy driving while benefiting public health and safety.
Participants will include Jonathan Morrison, Administrator of NHTSA; Thomas Chapman, a Member of the NTSB; and John Bozzella, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the trade group representing the automotive industry.
New NSF Drowsy Driving Survey Data to Anchor the Solutions & Actions Panel
The second session, the Solutions & Actions Panel, is slated to include the exclusive release of the 2026 NSF Drowsy Driving survey data. Those results will serve as the basis for a discussion of evidence-based strategies and collaborations intended to help drivers stay alert and prevent fall-asleep crashes. The panel draws on expertise in roadway safety, transportation, population research and clinical sleep medicine.
Panelists will include Joseph Dzierzewski, PhD, Senior Vice President of Research and Scientific Affairs at the National Sleep Foundation; Jonathan Adkins, Chief Executive Officer of the Governors Highway Safety Association; David Harkey, President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety; Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, MD, President of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine; and Jamie Butters, a veteran automotive journalist and host of the Autotown Radio Show and Podcast.
The Scale of Drowsy Driving, According to the National Sleep Foundation
The foundation characterizes drowsy driving as impaired driving and estimates that it accounts for one in five fatal crashes on U.S. roads. Its materials point to a gap between awareness and behavior: 95 percent of Americans recognize drowsy driving as dangerous, yet nearly two-thirds report having driven while so tired that they had difficulty keeping their eyes open.
Younger motorists appear especially exposed. Among new drivers, one in six teenagers report driving drowsy within their first two years behind the wheel, according to the foundation.
Daylight Saving Time Ends the Same Day Drowsy Driving Prevention Week Begins
The calendar adds a seasonal backdrop to the campaign. Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026, the first day of Drowsy Driving Prevention Week, when clocks in most of the country fall back one hour. The change brings an extra hour of sleep on paper, but safety organizations have long warned that the shift can work against drivers in the days that follow.
The first factor is the body clock. The National Safety Council has said the time change affects natural body clocks, and AAA Northeast has noted that adjustments in sleep schedules can lead to drowsiness behind the wheel. In a statement tied to the end of daylight saving time, AAA Northeast spokesperson Mark Schieldrop said the earlier arrival of darkness may also alter sleep cycles. The New York State Partnership Against Drowsy Driving has similarly cautioned that the extra hour, despite its appeal, can disrupt sleep patterns and leave people feeling drowsy.
The second factor is light. After the clocks change, sunset arrives an hour earlier, which places more of the evening commute in darkness. AAA has pointed to that combination of disrupted sleep and darker roads as a recipe for more crashes, citing an increase in pedestrian crashes in the 5 p.m. hour in November compared with October in its analysis of crash data. The National Safety Council has added that depth perception, color recognition and peripheral vision can be compromised in the dark, and that oncoming headlight glare can temporarily blind a driver.
Fatigue can also be hard for drivers to gauge in themselves. Research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 75 percent of participants in a simulated nighttime driving experiment who rated their drowsiness as low were in fact moderately or highly drowsy. The warning signs that safety agencies list include repeated yawning, difficulty focusing and trouble remembering the last few miles driven.
A Year-Round Program Built Around the Forum
The Drowsy Driving Forum serves as a cornerstone of the National Sleep Foundation’s expanded year-round Drowsy Driving Prevention Program, which combines public education, scientific research, strategic collaborations and national leadership with the aim of reducing fatigue-related crashes and improving roadway safety. The foundation says it independently produces Drowsy Driving Prevention Week and all related educational content.
Complimentary registration and the program agenda are available through the National Sleep Foundation. Founded in 1990, the NSF describes itself as an independent nonprofit dedicated to improving health and well-being through sleep education and advocacy, and says it has promoted sleep health for more than 35 years through expert recommendations, consensus guidelines, technology standards and evidence-based tips and tools.