Citation

Hallvig D, Anund A, Fors C, Kecklund G, Akerstedt T. Biol. Psychol. 2014; 101: 18-23.

Affiliation

Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University Stockholm Sweden; Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: Torbjorn.Akerstedt@stressforskning.su.se.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.07.001

PMID

25010991

Abstract

Only limited information is available on how driving performance relates to physiological and subjective sleepiness indicators on real roads. The present study investigated the relation between such indicators and lane departures during night driving. 33 volunteers drove for 90minutes on a two-lane, 9m wide rural road during the afternoon and night in an instrumented car, while electroencephalography and electrooculography and lane departures (line crossings) were recorded continuously and subjective ratings of sleepiness were made every 5minutes (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale - KSS). Data was analyzed using Bayesian multilevel modeling. The results showed that unintentional lane departures increased during night driving, as did self-reported sleepiness and long blink durations. Lateral position moved to the left of the lane. Lane departures were predicted by self-reported sleepiness and blink duration in the longitudinal analysis across time. Lane departures were also significantly higher in individuals with high sleepiness. Most lane departures occurred at levels 8 and 9 on the KSS scale. It was also demonstrated that removal of intentional lane departures, including shortcutting through curves enhanced the relation between self-reported sleepiness and lane departures. It was concluded that lane departures, eye blink duration and subjective sleepiness are strongly increased during night driving and that subjective sleepiness is a sensitive predictor of lane departures.

Language: en