On-road driving impairment following sleep deprivation differs according to age

Abstract

Impaired driving performance due to sleep loss is a major contributor to motor-vehicle crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries. As on-road, fully-instrumented studies of drowsy driving have largely focused on young drivers, we examined the impact of sleep loss on driving performance and physiological drowsiness in both younger and older drivers of working age. Sixteen ‘younger’ adults (M = 24.3 ± 3.1 years [21–33 years], 9 males) and seventeen ‘older’ adults (M = 57.3 ± 5.2, [50–65 years], 9 males) undertook two 2 h drives on a closed-loop track in an instrumented vehicle with a qualified instructor following (i) 8 h sleep opportunity the night prior (well-rested), and (ii) after 29-h of total sleep deprivation (TSD). Following TSD, both age groups displayed increased subjective sleepiness and lane departures (p < 0.05), with younger drivers exhibiting 7.37 × more lane departures, and 11 × greater risk of near crash events following sleep loss. While older drivers exhibited a 3.5 × more lane departures following sleep loss (p = 0.008), they did not have a significant increase in near-crash events (3/34 drives). Compared to older adults, younger adults had 3.1 × more lane departures (p = < 0.001), and more near crash events (79% versus 21%, p = 0.007). Ocular measures of drowsiness, including blink duration, number of long eye closures and PERCLOS increased following sleep loss for younger adults only (p < 0.05). These results suggest that for older working-aged adults, driving impairments observed following sleep loss may not be due to falling asleep. Future work should examine whether this is attributed to other consequences of sleep loss, such as inattention or distraction from the road.

How Tired is Too Tired to Drive? A Systematic Review Assessing the Use of Prior Sleep Duration to Detect Driving Impairment

“… Anderson and Horne (2013) 15 Healthy young men (n = 8) Age: 20–26 yrs Counterbalanced crossover design Sleep conditions: Normal duration control, 8.1 h ± 0.2 (M ± SD) Sleep restriction, 5 h TIB High-fidelity simulator, fixed base Lane crossing incidents Drivers more distracted following SR vs control condition (180.9 ± 12.6 vs 107.6 ± 18.8, p < 0.005) During SR, more distractions were associated with incidents than for control sleep (p < 0.048) Barrett et al (2004) 16 Healthy young women (n = 12) Age: 20.7 ± 0.1 y (M ± SEM) Counterbalanced crossover design Placebo vs Alcohol Sleep conditions: Normal duration control, 8.1 h ± 0.2 h (M ± SEM) Sleep restriction, 5 h TIB (02:00–07:00) High-fidelity simulator, fixed base Lane crossing incidents Significant effect of condition (p < 0.001): 5 h TIB (placebo) had 784% more incidents than normal sleep (placebo) Bartrim et al (2020) 17 Healthy young adults (n = 20) Age: 23.3 ± 5.7 y (M ± SD) Sex: 11f, 9m Randomized crossover trial Placebo vs Caffeine Sleep conditions: Day 0: Rested control, ≥8 h TIB (wake time at 05:00) Day 1–3: Sleep restriction, 5 h TIB (00:00–05:00) Medium-fidelity driving simulator, fixed-base SDLP SDSP Lane crossing No main or interaction effects of day (8 h vs 5 h TIB) or treatment (placebo vs caffeine) on SDLP or lane crossing Main effect of day on SDSP (p = 0.025), with worse performance on day 1 (5 h TIB). Cai et al (2021) 18 Younger adults (n = 16) Age: 24.3 ± 3.1 y Sex: 7f, 9m Older adults (n = 17) Age: 57.3 ± 5.2 y Sex: 8f, 9m Mixed design, counterbalanced crossover Sleep conditions: Rested control, 8 h TIB Sleep deprivation, 0 h TIB (≥...…”

“…A wide range of populations were included, though there were some differences based on study type. Experimental or quasi-experimental studies included university students (n = 2), 33,34 young adults (n = 11), [15][16][17][18]20,22,25,[27][28][29]32 and healthy adults of any age (n = 8). 14,19,21,23,24,26,30,31 Naturalistic studies were based on heavy vehicle drivers (n = 2), 35,36 and nurses (n = 1).…”

“…• Normal duration control, 8.0 h ± 0.9 h (M ± SD) Nine experimental studies compared driving following a night-time control sleep with driving following either total sleep deprivation (0 h TIB; n = 7) 18,23,26,[29][30][31]33 or severe night-time restriction (2 h TIB; n = 2). 27,28 Two of the total sleep deprivation studies were conducted using a computer-based simulated driving task, 29,33 while the other five were conducted in real on-road drives, either on closed-loop tracks 18,30,31 or on the highway with a licensed instructor. 23,26 The two studies involving severe sleep restriction of 2 h TIB also assessed driving on an open highway.…”

A Contextual Multimodal System for Increasing Situation Awareness and Takeover Quality in Conditionally Automated Driving

“…In particular, one of the challenges is to ensure that the driver is in good condition to take over control at any time. In the case of manual driving, factors such as fatigue (or drowsiness), distraction, mental workload, alcohol, or stress have already been shown to degrade driving performance [5], [6], [7], [8]. Drivers may already be in poor condition when they get into the vehicle, but it can also get worse while driving.…”

We see you

“…Lack of quality sleep may increase our risk for weight gain and diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high BP, heart disease, and stroke 6-9. Sleep deficiency is also associated with an increased risk of injury and motor vehicle crashes from drowsy driving 10. Therefore, obtaining quality sleep is a necessity for both physical and mental health.…”