Gonna make it home tonight: researchers study effects of sleep deprivation on truck drivers
CTS Research E-News, April 2009
From Bakersfield to Nashville, truck drivers’ long hauls are the stuff of country music legend. But fatigue is a significant problem for truckers—and everyone else who eschews rest in order to get to their destinations sooner. To better understand the effects of sleep deprivation, John Bloomfield and Kathleen A. Harder of the Center for Human Factors Systems Research and Design and graduate student Benjamin Chihak carried out a series of tests on commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers using the HumanFIRST Program’s advanced driving simulator. The ITS Institute supported this research through a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technologies Administration.
Twenty drivers recruited with the aid of the Minnesota Trucking Association were each kept awake for the entire 20-hour experiment. Each participant drove for four one-hour sessions (morning, afternoon, evening, and night) in the simulator, which presented a variety of features and road characteristics along a route that took roughly an hour to drive. The subjects also took visual performance and reaction time tests. Following the experiment, all participants were taken to a supervised location to catch up on their shut-eye.
Although forbidden to nap, the drivers were allowed to consume caffeine and tobacco if they would normally do so.
Data collected during the experiment showed that the drivers’ steering was less steady after sleep deprivation, indicating that even experienced CMV drivers are likely to experience some performance impairment if they are kept awake for a long time.
The Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Driving Performance (CTS 09-03) is available from the ITS Institute Web site.