Extended Driving Impairs Nocturnal Driving Performances

Abstract

Though fatigue and sleepiness at the wheel are well-known risk factors for traffic accidents, many drivers combine extended driving and sleep deprivation. Fatigue-related accidents occur mainly at night but there is no experimental data available to determine if the duration of prior driving affects driving performance at night. Participants drove in 3 nocturnal driving sessions (3–5am, 1–5am and 9pm–5am) on open highway. Fourteen young healthy men (mean age [±SD] = 23.4 [±1.7] years) participated Inappropriate line crossings (ILC) in the last hour of driving of each session, sleep variables, self-perceived fatigue and sleepiness were measured. Compared to the short (3–5am) driving session, the incidence rate ratio of inappropriate line crossings increased by 2.6 (95% CI, 1.1 to 6.0; P<.05) for the intermediate (1–5am) driving session and by 4.0 (CI, 1.7 to 9.4; P<.001) for the long (9pm–5am) driving session. Compared to the reference session (9–10pm), the incidence rate ratio of inappropriate line crossings were 6.0 (95% CI, 2.3 to 15.5; P<.001), 15.4 (CI, 4.6 to 51.5; P<.001) and 24.3 (CI, 7.4 to 79.5; P<.001), respectively, for the three different durations of driving. Self-rated fatigue and sleepiness scores were both positively correlated to driving impairment in the intermediate and long duration sessions (P<.05) and increased significantly during the nocturnal driving sessions compared to the reference session (P<.01). At night, extended driving impairs driving performances and therefore should be limited.

Sleep Apnea, Sleep Debt and Daytime Sleepiness Are Independently Associated with Road Accidents. A Cross-Sectional Study on Truck Drivers

“…These factors are known to impair driving ability and induce subjective feelings of tiredness, slowed reaction times, lapses of attention to critical details and performance deterioration [20–23]. As a result, sleep- and EDS-related MVAs are more likely to occur among professional male drivers than in males in the general population [24,25].…”

Shift Work, Severe Sleepiness and Safety

“…Ongoing work suggests that time at the wheel may be an important additional factor. Sagaspe et al (2008) have demonstrated pronounced such effects on line crossings and KSS when driving at night 13) . Also, while of great practical importance, studies of driving may not be representative of other tasks common in industry, health care and service.…”

Sleep Disorders, Cognition, Accidents, and Performance

“…However, such studies have been carried out with night driving and the effects have been pronounced [65,66].…”