Individual variability and predictors of driving simulator impairment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with driving impairment and road crashes. However, daytime function varies widely between patients presenting a clinical challenge when assessing crash risk. This study aimed to determine the proportion of patients showing "normal" versus "abnormal" driving simulator performance and examine whether anthropometric, clinical, and neurobehavioral measures predict abnormal driving.

At home and away: measuring the sleep of Australian truck drivers.

The causes of fatigue in truck drivers related to work hours have been studied extensively and are reasonably well understood. However, much less is known about how rest opportunities can be structured to optimise recovery from fatigue. The nature of the road transport industry often requires that rest be taken in various locations.

Auditory evoked potentials remain abnormal after CPAP treatment in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnoea.

Objective: To assess the effects of 3 months of optimal CPAP treatment on auditory event related potentials (AERP) in patients with severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) compared with healthy controls.

Methods: Auditory odd-ball related N1, P2, N2 and P3 AERP components were assessed in 9 severe OSA subjects and 9 healthy controls at baseline evaluation and at ∼3 months follow-up in both groups, with OSA subjects treated with continuous positive air-way pressure (CPAP) during this period.

Results: Severe OSA subjects showed significantly delayed, P2, N2 and P3 latencies, and significantly different P2 and P3 amplitudes compared to controls at baseline (group effect, all p<0.

Driving simulator performance remains impaired in patients with severe OSA after CPAP treatment.

Study Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of CPAP treatment in improving 90-minute driving simulator performance in severe OSA patients compared to age/gender matched controls.

Design: Driving simulator performance was assessed at baseline and 3 months later, with OSA patients treated with CPAP during the interval.

Setting: University Teaching Hospital.

Work hours, workload, sleep and fatigue in Australian Rail Industry employees.

Research suggests that less than 5 h sleep in the 24 h prior to work and/or more than 16 h of wakefulness can significantly increase the likelihood of fatigue-related impairment and error at work. Studies have also shown exponential safety declines with time on shift, with roughly double the likelihood of accident or injury after 10 h relative to the first 8h. While it is acknowledged that reduced sleep, increased wakefulness and longer work hours produce work-related fatigue, few studies have examined the impact of workload on this relationship.

Effects of alcohol and sleep restriction on simulated driving performance in untreated patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Because of previous sleep disturbance and sleep hypoxia, patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) might be more vulnerable to the effects of alcohol and sleep restriction than healthy persons.

Objective: To compare the effects of sleep restriction and alcohol on driving simulator performance in patients with OSA and age-matched control participants.

Design: Driving simulator assessments in 2 groups under 3 different conditions presented in random order.

Predicting the timing and duration of sleep in an operational setting using social factors.

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the use of bio-mathematical models to predict alertness, performance, and/or fatigue in operational settings. Current models use only biological factors to make their estimations, which can be limited in operational settings where social and geo-physical factors also dictate when sleep occurs. The interaction between social and biological factors that help determine the timing and duration of sleep during layover periods have been investigated in order to create and initially validate a mathematical model that may better predict sleep in the field.

Awareness of sleepiness when driving.

The extent to which sleepy drivers are aware of sleepiness has implications for the prevention of sleep-related crashes, especially for drivers younger than 30 years old who are most at risk. Using a real car interactive simulator, we report on EEG, subjective sleepiness, and lane drifting (sleepiness-related driving impairment) from 38 sleep-restricted, healthy young adults undergoing nontreatment control conditions from three (unpublished) investigations using the same experimental protocols for assessing various drinks intended to alleviate sleepiness. Participants drove 2 h during midafternoon under monotonous conditions.