Can drivers avoid falling asleep at the wheel ? : relationship between awareness of sleepiness and ability to predict sleep onset.

Auteur(s)
Itoi, A. Cilveti, R. Voth, M. Dantz, B. Hyde, P. Gupta, A. & Dement, W.C.
Jaar
Samenvatting

This study addresses two key questions regarding the causes of sleep-related accidents: 1) Can drivers anticipate sleep onset well enough to avoid sleep-related accidents? 2) How do drivers use physiological cues of sleepiness in making judgments regarding the riskiness of continued driving? To explore these questions, we had 41 partially sleep-deprived subjects participate in a one-hour computerized exercise in which they predicted the likelihood of sleep. For 30 consecutive 2-minute intervals, subjects were asked to predict the likelihood of sleep onset for the coming 2-minute interval, using a scale of 0% likelihood to 100% likelihood. Subjects also reported any physiological signs of sleepiness they noticed by selecting one of six icons from the computer screen. The icons represented involuntary eye closure, involuntary head nodding, hallucinatory or wandering thoughts, yawns, and instances of sleep. Subjects exhibited a wide variation in their ability to predict sleep onset. For all subjects, the mean prediction of sleep likelihood prior to sleep (78%) was significantly higher than the mean prediction of sleep likelihood prior to intervals in which no sleep occurred (42%). However, subjects tended to predict much lower likelihoods of sleep onset before their first sleep event (55%) than before sleep events in general. On average, the rate at which subjects reported physiological indicators of sleepiness (such as head nodding, eye closure, and wandering thoughts) was higher prior to sleep than prior to intervals in which sleep did not occur. Subjects whose predictions seemed to ignore the frequency of physiological indicators of sleepiness tended to be poor predictors. Subjects whose physiological signs of sleepiness failed to provide a strong indication of whether or not sleep onset would occur also tended to be poor predictors. These findings suggest that people's inability to judge sleep onset, and hence their susceptibility to sleep-related accidents, may be attributable to a scarcity of meaningful physiological warning signs in some individuals and to a failure to acknowledge the importance of meaningful physiological warning signs in others. (A)

Publicatie

Bibliotheeknummer
C 8653 [electronic version only] /83 /
Uitgave

Washington, D.C., American Automobile Association AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 1993, 33 p., 12 ref.

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