Centre for Sleep Research, University of South Australia, GPO Box 2471, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia.
Accid Anal Prev. 2012 Mar;45 Suppl:55-61. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2011.09.027. Epub 2011 Dec 14.
Around a fifth of all road accidents can be attributed to fatigued drivers. Previous studies indicate that driving performance is influenced by time of day and decreases with sustained wakefulness. However, these influences occur naturally in unison, confounding their effects. Typically, when people drive at a poor time of day and with extended wake, their sleep is also restricted. Hence, the aim of the current study was to determine the independent effects of prior wake and time of day on driving performance under conditions of sleep restriction. The driving performance of fourteen male participants (21.8 ± 3.8 years, mean ± SD) was assessed during a 10 min simulated driving task with speed/lane mean, variability and violations (speeding and crashes) measured. Participants were tested at 2.5h intervals after waking, across 7 × 28 h days with a sleep:wake ratio of 1:5. By forced desynchrony each driving session occurred at 9 doses of prior wake and within 6 divisions of the circadian cycle based on core body temperature. A mixed models ANOVA revealed significant main effects of circadian phase, prior wake and sleep debt on lane violations. In addition, three significant two-way interactions (circadian phase × prior wake, prior wake × sleep debt, sleep debt × circadian phase) and one three-way interaction (circadian × prior wake × sleep debt) were identified. The presence of the large interaction effects shows that the influence of each factor is largely dependent on the magnitude of the other factors. For example, the presence of the time of day influence on driving performance is dependent on the length of prior wake or the presence of sleep debt. The findings suggest that people are able to undertake a low-difficulty simulated drive safely, at least for a short period, during their circadian nadir provided that they have had sufficient sleep and have not been awake too long.
大约五分之一的道路交通事故可归因于疲劳驾驶。先前的研究表明，驾驶表现受时间影响，随着持续清醒时间的延长而下降。然而，这些影响是自然同时发生的，这使得它们的影响难以区分。通常，当人们在一天中不适宜的时间驾驶并保持长时间清醒时，他们的睡眠也会受到限制。因此，本研究的目的是确定在睡眠限制条件下，先前的清醒时间和时间对驾驶表现的独立影响。在 10 分钟的模拟驾驶任务中评估了 14 名男性参与者（21.8 ± 3.8 岁，平均值 ± 标准差）的驾驶表现，测量了速度/车道平均值、变异性和违规行为（超速和碰撞）。参与者在醒来后每隔 2.5 小时接受一次测试，在 7 天×28 小时的时间内，睡眠/觉醒比为 1:5。通过强制不同步，每次驾驶测试都在 9 个先前清醒剂量内和基于核心体温的 6 个昼夜周期分区内进行。混合模型方差分析显示，昼夜相位、先前清醒和睡眠债务对车道违规有显著的主效应。此外，还确定了三个显著的双向交互作用（昼夜相位×先前清醒、先前清醒×睡眠债务、睡眠债务×昼夜相位）和一个三向交互作用（昼夜×先前清醒×睡眠债务）。大的交互作用的存在表明，每个因素的影响在很大程度上取决于其他因素的大小。例如，时间对驾驶表现的影响的存在取决于先前清醒时间的长短或睡眠债务的存在。这些发现表明，只要人们有足够的睡眠并且没有保持太长时间的清醒，他们就能够在至少短时间内安全地进行低难度的模拟驾驶，即使在昼夜最低点。
