The road traffic accidents (RTA) cause large dainage on human health and life, material and environmental damages. The human resource losses represent the main component of the social costs of RTA. These total costs are estimated at per cents of GDP. The severity and effects of the sleep-related RTA are similar to the alcohol-related RTA. According to foreign studies they comprise 1 to 25% of all accidents. In the Czech Republic these data are not available, the amount of social costs of the sleep-related RTA can be estimated at billions of CZK yearly.
A decrease in quality and quantity of sleep has a negative impact on efficiency during wakefulness, which shows particularly in case of people who interact with technological systems, for example system operators, vehicle drivers, etc. Day sleep can positively influence the following vigilance but in the time immediately after the sleep, the psychomotor performance is influenced by sleep inertia whose intensity depends on time and length of sleep.
The aim of the study was to compare day psychomotor performances of people suffering from sleep disorders and a control group of healthy people, and to test the hypothesis that a short, 15 minute long sleep causes more important sleep inertia at 3 p.m. than at 1 p.m.
Sleepiness was objectively evaluated on a group of 35 tested probands, consisting of 29 patients (13 women and 16 men) with given excessive daytime sleepiness accompanying sleep disorder, and of a control group of 6 healthy subjects, with help of Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) and subjectively with help of Alertness Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Psychomotor performance was examined by Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT).
We found out an unimportant difference in the intensity of sleep inertia after a sleep at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. We proved significant prolongation of a reaction time and an increase in number of lapses on the group with pathologically shortened sleep latency in MSLT compared to the group with the normal sleep latency. Our work also shows the difference between the subjective and objective evaluation of sleepiness of subjects. Our results show that the prolonged reaction time and increase in number of lapses of the patient group are significant in all PVT examinations compared to the control group. Further, it is obvious that the PVT test is a more sensitive method for judging psychomotor performance and indirectly for judging sleepiness than the MSLT.
These facts seem to be important especially from the two following reasons:
- They can be a help for recommendation of improved regime for driver relaxation.
- They can help in search for deeper understanding of mechanisms of attention decreases.
In modern society, many people keep working hours different from the standard (9 hours, 5 days a week during conventional time of the day), a regimen leading to sleep deprivation and/or circadian desynchronization, and, consequently, to sleepiness, fatigue, impaired efficiency and ultimately to psychic and somatic complaints. Fortunately, sleepiness-related health and occupational hazards can be kept under control using scientifically tested precautions designed to help maintain wakefulness. Suitable work and rest scheduling and observance of the principles of sleep hygiene are of major importance there. In situations which interfere with sleep, it is possible to use hypnotics or behavioral techniques and melatonin for circadian regimen optimization. In situations when sleep loss is temporarily inevitable, options to be taken into account include work shift shortening, breaks for rest, naps of short duration or administration of vigilance enhancing drugs. In the future, risks associated with sleepiness could be mitigated by means of currently developed technologies for real-time detection of sleepiness.