The Negative Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Driving Ability
It is widely recognised that driving under the influence of alcohol is dangerous and potentially deadly and as such the Australian government implemented a law that limits the blood alcohol content (BAC) of drivers (Australian Transport Council, 2011). However, research shows that it may be equally as dangerous to drive when fatigued (Williamson & Feyer, 2000) and it is estimated that between 20 and 30% of fatal road accidents involve driver fatigue (Australian Transport Council, 2011). A study conducted by Williamson and Feyer (2000) found that driving while sleep deprived severely compromised driving ability and resulted in slower reaction times, an increase in the number of missed …show more content…
The study used a repeated measures design where all subjects participated in both conditions, one condition being alcohol where participants were given four doses of alcohol at hourly intervals to reach BACs of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075% and 1% and had their driving ability tested 30 minutes after each dose. The other condition was sleep deprivation where participants had their driving ability tested every hour until five hours had past and then every second hour until participants had been awake for 28 hours. There were 39 subjects, of which 37 were male. Performance was assessed using measures including reaction speed and time, number of missed signals and false alarms, accuracy and hand-eye coordination. From these measures it was found that sleep deprivation negatively impacted and compromised driving performance. For example, when participants had between 13 and 23 hours of sleep deprivation their reaction speed decreased by 57%, reaction time decreased by 9%, hand-eye coordination decreased by 31%, the number of missed signals increased by more than 40% and the number of false alarms increased by 200% (Williamson & Feyer,
It is widely recognised that driving under the influence of alcohol is dangerous and potentially deadly and as such the Australian government implemented a law that limits the blood alcohol content (BAC) of drivers (Australian Transport Council, 2011). However, research shows that it may be equally as dangerous to drive when fatigued (Williamson & Feyer, 2000) and it is estimated that between 20 and 30% of fatal road accidents involve driver fatigue (Australian Transport Council, 2011). A study conducted by Williamson and Feyer (2000) found that driving while sleep deprived severely compromised driving ability and resulted in slower reaction times, an increase in the number of missed …show more content…
The study used a repeated measures design where all subjects participated in both conditions, one condition being alcohol where participants were given four doses of alcohol at hourly intervals to reach BACs of 0.025%, 0.05%, 0.075% and 1% and had their driving ability tested 30 minutes after each dose. The other condition was sleep deprivation where participants had their driving ability tested every hour until five hours had past and then every second hour until participants had been awake for 28 hours. There were 39 subjects, of which 37 were male. Performance was assessed using measures including reaction speed and time, number of missed signals and false alarms, accuracy and hand-eye coordination. From these measures it was found that sleep deprivation negatively impacted and compromised driving performance. For example, when participants had between 13 and 23 hours of sleep deprivation their reaction speed decreased by 57%, reaction time decreased by 9%, hand-eye coordination decreased by 31%, the number of missed signals increased by more than 40% and the number of false alarms increased by 200% (Williamson & Feyer,