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Previous Volume 337:755-762 September 11, 1997 Number 11 Next

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ABSTRACT

Background Fatigue and sleep deprivation are important safety issues for long-haul truck drivers.

Methods We conducted round-the-clock electrophysiologic and performance monitoring of four groups of 20 male truck drivers who were carrying revenue-producing loads. We compared four driving schedules, two in the United States (five 10-hour trips of day driving beginning about the same time each day or of night driving beginning about 2 hours earlier each day) and two in Canada (four 13-hour trips of late-night-to-morning driving beginning at about the same time each evening or of afternoon-to-night driving beginning 1 hour later each day).

Results Drivers averaged 5.18 hours in bed per day and 4.78 hours of electrophysiologically verified sleep per day over the five-day study (range, 3.83 hours of sleep for those on the steady 13-hour night schedule to 5.38 hours of sleep for those on the steady 10-hour day schedule). These values compared with a mean (±SD) self-reported ideal amount of sleep of 7.1±1 hours a day. For 35 drivers (44 percent), naps augmented the sleep obtained by an average of 0.45±0.31 hour. No crashes or other vehicle mishaps occurred. Two drivers had undiagnosed sleep apnea, as detected by polysomnography. Two other drivers had one episode each of stage 1 sleep while driving, as detected by electroencephalography. Forty-five drivers (56 percent) had at least 1 six-minute interval of drowsiness while driving, as judged by analysis of video recordings of their faces; 1067 of the 1989 six-minute segments (54 percent) showing drowsy drivers involved just eight drivers.

Conclusions Long-haul truck drivers in this study obtained less sleep than is required for alertness on the job. The greatest vulnerability to sleep or sleep-like states is in the late night and early morning.

Source Information

From the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, Calif. (M.M.M., J.C.M.); the Sleep Disorders Centre of Metropolitan Toronto, Toronto (J.J.L.); the Sleep Medicine and Research Center, Chesterfield, Mo. (J.K.W.); and Wylie and Associates, Goleta, Calif. (C.D.W.). The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Mitler at the Scripps Clinic and Research Institute, Laboratory for Sleep, Fatigue, and Safety, 9834 Genesee Ave., Suite 328, La Jolla, CA 92037-1205.

Full Text of this Article

Related Letters:

The Sleep of Long-Haul Truck Drivers
Braver E. R., Pantula J. F., Baker S. P., Barach P., David G. B., Richter E., Benaron D. A., Green M. J., Mitler M. M., Wylie C. D.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1998; 338:389-391, Feb 5, 1998. Correspondence

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