Effect of Countermeasures on Nocturnal Driving Performance

Summary

Sleep deprivation induces degradation of night-time driving ability via sleepiness. Because of conflicts between physiological needs and social or professional activities, it is necessary to develop affordable countermeasure to sleepiness. In real-life driving studies, nap and coffee are efficient countermeasures of sleepiness at the wheel. However the effect of caffeine is quick but brief and varies between individuals. There is a need for more knowledge in order to know what to recommend to drivers. Exposure to 460-nm monochromatic light (blue light) decreases subjective sleepiness and improves performances. One objective of this project is to investigate whether blue light exposure during driving would be useful in a real driving situation when sleepiness becomes acute. Owing to the fact that our knowledge of the effects of exercise on driving is very sparse and to the absolutely need to standardize the bouts of exercise that will be applied to the subjects. One objective of the present study will be to investigate in a simulator study the effects of a bout of moderate exercise on participants driving ability when sleepiness becomes acute. Nocturnal neurobehavioral performance varies widely between individuals and only certain subjects seem significantly affected by sleep loss. It is of interest to find biological markers for sleep drive to identify vulnerable drivers to sleep deprivation or to identify responders to sleepiness countermeasures (i.e., coffee and blue light). One objective of this study is to determine individual differences (genetic, hormonal and cognitive) in the impairment of driving skills induced by sleep loss and in the efficiency of countermeasures (blue light and coffee).

Conditions

• Sleepiness

Interventions

OTHER

Real driving situation

Continuous blue light exposure during driving compared to effects of coffee (2\*200 mg of caffeine) and coffee placebo on 4h night-time real driving situation. Inside this arm, each volunteer will be randomly allocated and will all receive : continuous blue light exposure, coffee and coffee placebo at each driving session with at least 1 week between each condition.

OTHER

Driving simulator

15 minutes of physical activity at a low intensity before driving compared to effects of coffee (2\*200 mg of caffeine) and coffee placebo on 4h night-time driving simulator. Inside this arm, each volunteer will be randomly allocated and will all receive : 15 minutes of physical activity, coffee and coffee placebo at each driving session with at least 1 week between each condition.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• ERANET

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• INSERM ERI27 Mobilités Cognition et Temporalité

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Hotel Dieu Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• IMF, CNRS UMR-5231

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University Hospital, Bordeaux

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Pierre Philip, Pr · University Hospital, Bordeaux

• Pierre Denise, Pr · INSERM ERI27

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

20 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-01-31

Primary Completion

2011-08-31

Completion

2011-08-31

Countries

• France

Study Locations