High stress for the morning school run

Allianz Insurance, providers of car insurance, has carried out some research into the stress of parents undertaking the school run in the morning, and found stress levels to be worryingly high.

Stress level of a person can be indicated by taking a sample of saliva and checking how much cortisol is present in it. Cortisol is often called the stress hormone and is released when we, as the name indicates, are under stress.

It was found that in the participants stress levels peaked at 30% above average at 8.15am just as they set out to drive their children to school.

High levels of stress are known to impair driving skill, and so being stressed out before heading into the tumult of morning traffic is likely to increase the risk of there being an accident.

Dr Simon Moore, who carried out the research, commented: “Making sure parents are feeling as little stress as possible before they start the drive to school is crucial to ensuring road safety on the school run”.

Francesca Keefe of Allianz Insurance added that “we know that stress has a negative impact on driving behaviour and with over half (55 per cent) of the UK’s children travelling to school by car it’s important that parents are doing what they can to relieve any unnecessary stress before they get behind the wheel.”

Stress has been in the headlines a lot over the last few years, with the rise of the mindfulness movement helping people both on their own and within corporations, to relieve their minds of stress.

Look out for stress relief courses you can join in your area if you are stressed out.

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