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The effect of partial sleep deprivation on computer-based measures of fitness to drive

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Abstract

Purpose

Using a partial sleep deprivation paradigm, the aim of the study was to investigate the sensitivity of a computer-based test battery of fitness to drive to detect impairments related to sleepiness.

Methods

Forty-seven healthy subjects (34 females, mean age 26.0 ± 6.8 years) participated in a counterbalanced within-subject design of two conditions: (i) normal night sleep and (ii) partial sleep deprivation (PSD) with 4 h time in bed. For the assessment of fitness to drive, we used a validated traffic psychological test battery. Moreover, well-established measures of sleepiness highly responsive to sleep deprivation were applied: the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), pupillography (Pupil Unrest Index (PUI) as physiological sleepiness indicator) and two sustained attention tasks (psychomotor Vigilance Task and Mackworth Clock Test).

Results

Subjective and physiological sleepiness were significantly increased after PSD, accompanied by large (d > 1.50 for KSS) and medium (d = 0.55 for PUI) effect sizes. Sleepiness-related performance decrements were found in both sustained attention tasks (d = 0.59–0.77). Assessing driving-related ability, PSD induced decrements only in the test domain Reaction Test (reaction time d = 0.54 and motor time d = 0.45). All other subtests—as well as the overall judgement of fitness to drive—were not significantly affected by PSD.

Conclusion

In contrast to established tests of sustained attention and subjective sleepiness, computer-based test batteries of fitness to drive might lack sensitivity to core aspects of sleepiness as they mainly consist of short and stimulating subtests. Therefore, tasks that require sustained attention should be an essential part of traffic psychological test batteries when sleepiness is a potential issue.

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Acknowledgments

We like to thank Forkwa Tembei for his help with the data collection. Johanna Schwarz is grateful for the support from the Swedish Institute (Svenska Institutet) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Compliance with ethical standards

The study was approved by the university ethics committee (Reference no 08/024) and was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave written informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Center of Sleep Medicine, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstrasse 84, 93053, Regensburg, Germany

    Johanna F. A. Schwarz, Peter Geisler, Göran Hajak, Jürgen Zulley, Rainer Rupprecht, Thomas C. Wetter & Roland F. J. Popp

  2. Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johanna F. A. Schwarz

  3. Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Johanna F. A. Schwarz

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Social Foundation Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Göran Hajak

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  1. Johanna F. A. Schwarz
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  2. Peter Geisler
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Correspondence to Roland F. J. Popp.

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Schwarz, J.F.A., Geisler, P., Hajak, G. et al. The effect of partial sleep deprivation on computer-based measures of fitness to drive. Sleep Breath 20, 285–292 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-015-1220-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-015-1220-0

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