Motorcycling performance and sleepiness during an extended ride on a dynamic simulator: relationship with stress biomarkers

Abstract

Objective: Powered two-wheelers (PTW) make up a large proportion of fatal accidents. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of time-of-day and total sleep deprivation (SD) on simulated motorcycling performance during extended riding sessions (60 min), while evaluating stress mechanisms. Approach: A total of 16 healthy males participated in four simulated motorcycling sessions at 07:00, 11:00, 15:00 and 19:00, including city (8 min), country (2 min) and highway pathways (40 min), after a normal night of sleep and after total SD (30 h), in a randomized counterbalanced order. The recorded motorcycle parameters included: variation of lateral position, number of inappropriate line crossings (ILC), falls, riding errors, speed and speed limit violations. Subject parameters included the number of microsleeps in each pathway, the number of lapses during the 3-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT—Brief version), and the Karolinska sleepiness scale (KSS) score. Saliva samples were used to assess cortisol (sC), α-amylase (sAA), and chromogranin-A (sCgA). ANOVAs and Pearson’s correlation analysis were performed between these variables. Main results: Most parameters were influenced by an interaction effect between ‘Motorcycling pathways’ × ‘SD’ (speed (p < 0.05), legal speed violations (p < 0.01), variation of lateral position (p < 0.001), falls (p < 0.001), EEG-microsleeps (p < 005)). An interaction effect between ‘SD’ × ‘Time-of-day’ influenced the number of ILCs (p < 0.01), sC (p < 0.05) and sCgA (p < 0.05) levels. SD affected KSS scores (p < 0.001) and PVT lapses (p < 0.05). The highest disturbances were associated with highway motorcycling simulation. Significance: Sleepiness due to circadian or SD and fatigue effects significantly affect riding and increase the risks involved with PTWs. The activation of both stress systems seems not sufficient to alleviate these deleterious effects

Strategies to Limit Cognitive Impairments under Sleep Restriction: Relationship to Stress Biomarkers

“…The CgA is released along with catecholamines from the adrenal medulla and sympathetic nerve endings and is additionally seen as a biomarker of stress [ 24 ], but we are not aware of any data on sleep restriction. At SR5, we found no change in sCgA levels, as previously observed at 7 h after total sleep deprivation, whereas in this latest study, we observed an acute increase after a 60 min motorcycle riding session [ 51 ]. In our study, SR-RT and SR-NS conditions influenced sAA and CgA levels, particularly in recovery from severe sleep restriction.…”

Sleep deprivation detected by voice analysis

“…6A. There was no significant correlation between BAccs and SSS reports (r(20)=.32, p=.14, BF 10 =.47), suggesting that subjective sleepiness did not express all of the objective effects of sleep deprivation, at least as captured by our voice classifiers.…”

“…The psychomotor vigilance test (19), often used in research settings, tests for the ability to respond quickly to infrequent stimuli, with slower reaction times being used as a marker of attentional lapses. More recently, new approaches have attempted to leverage the concentration ok key molecules in the urine, saliva or breath to quantify sleepeiness (20). Although these objective methods are complementary to subjective reports, they are often costly, time consuming, or difficult to deploy outside of laboratories.…”

Effects of Caffeine Intake on Cognitive Performance Related to Total Sleep Deprivation and Time on Task: A Randomized Cross-Over Double-Blind Study

“…This was chosen i) to approximately estimate time on task kinetic and ii) because a 3-minute task is often used to evaluate cognitive fatigue. 31 …”