We all need it and few of us can get enough of it. But officials say drivers who don't get enough sleep are behind thousands of accidents in the state every year. Our Sabina Kuriakose reports.

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ALBANY, N.Y. -- "I've been in the car with someone who has almost fallen asleep while driving and it's really kind of a scary situation," said Sage College student Melanie Stella.

"I have seen people that have driven off the side of the road because they've been tired," added student Sarah Woodruff.

Stella and Woodruff said they've never done it themselves, but they have been in the car with drivers who "drove drowsy." And it's not just college students who are known take that risk when they get behind the wheel.

"Hospital workers who work bizarre hours, truck drivers, bus drivers, people who don't get their seven to eight hours of sleep every night," said NYS DMV Commissioner David Swarts.

At a press conference at Sage College on Tuesday, state DMV officials talked about the dangers of drowsy driving. They emphasized that many drivers don't realize how real the risks are when they're on the road.

"Drowsy driving is the equivalent of drunk driving," said Swarts.

Drowsy driving was blamed for more than 1,000 accidents last year across the state and more than 3,000 crashes were caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Experts say drowsy can turn to dozing in an instant.

"At one moment, we are awake, we can see and hear and a fraction of a second later, we are asleep. We are completely blind and deaf," described Dr. Siobhan Kuhar of the Albany Regional Sleep Disorders Center.

"Oftentimes, what people do is turn the radio up, pull the window down and everything will be fine. That's not good enough," said Swarts.

Instead, he said sleepy drivers should avoid driving altogether or take a break.

"If you start yawning and you're losing concentration, you should pull over and go to sleep," he said.

It's advice some students said they'll not only follow, but pass on to others.

"You can't be doing that, because you put other people's lives at risk," said one person.