TUESDAY, Dec. 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Missing just an hour or two of sleep at night nearly doubles your chances of a car crash the next day, a new report suggests.

And getting behind the wheel after only four to five hours of shut-eye quadruples that risk. That's comparable to driving with a blood alcohol concentration considered legally drunk, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety researchers warned.

"This is the first study to actually quantify the relationship between lack of sleep and the risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash," said report author Brian Tefft, who added that the risk of sleep-impaired driving has long been "underestimated and underappreciated."

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recognizes the problem and will soon issue a national strategy to combat drowsy driving, said Bryan Thomas, the federal agency's communications director.

"Not everyone drinks and drives or texts while driving, but everyone gets tired," Thomas said. "And far too often, drivers are putting themselves and others at risk by getting behind the wheel without the sleep they need."

National sleep organizations recommend that healthy adults get seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Teens, young adults and people recovering from a sleep deficit may need even more slumber, according to the report.

Lack of sleep slows reaction times, decreases response accuracy and leads to long lapses in attention, the foundation cautioned.

It makes sense that sleepy drivers' performance would be impaired, Tefft said. "But before this study, we did not have real-world evidence of the size of the increase in crash risk in relation to the degree of acute sleep deprivation," he explained.

For the report, which was released Tuesday, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety examined data from a NHTSA survey.

The survey consisted of a representative sample of nearly 4,600 police-reported crashes from July 2005 to December 2007. These crashes involved at least one vehicle towed from the scene of the accident and the dispatch of emergency medical personnel.

Specially trained investigators at the scene assessed factors that contributed to the crash as well as drivers' sleep routines, changes in sleep schedule and amount of sleep in the 24 hours before the crash.