Finding Ways to Increase Driver Safety

Sleep is the most essential part of our daily lives. Without proper rest, our bodies begin to lose its function. We become sluggish, performance declines, and our judgment becomes impaired. About 6-8 hours are needed for a full restart of our bodies. But with factors such as work, school, and personal issues tend to leave us with less hours of rest. A solution to help with the effects of sleep is caffeine. Often people turn to some form of caffeine to wake their bodies. Caffeine and drowsiness go hand in hand and is something people gravitate towards on a daily basis. People become reliant on the mental alertness it provides. Although this is not a permanent cure, it helps with the symptoms at present time.  

In the article, Can A Caffeine Buzz Improve Driving Safety?, a study was conducted to see if caffeine is able to help drivers drive more safely. The Australian Department of Defense's team of psychological scientists were able to conclude that with moderate doses of any form of caffeine can increase driver safety. To conduct this study, participants were kept awake for 50 hours. Half of these participants were given Military Energy Gum. This gum is equivalent of a strong cup of coffee. The gum was administered every two hours in the early morning. The other half of the participants were given a placebo. Every three hours of the experiment the participants underwent a 40-minute driving scenario on a driving simulator. These scenarios consisted of a rural highway with no cars, obstacles, or intersections. Performance of the driving was graded upon crashes, speed, and staying in the lane. At the conclusion of this experiment, the performance of the driving decreased after 48 hours for all the participants. In the placebo group, the participants started to show signs of drowsiness earlier than the caffeine group. Crashes began after 22 hours for the placebo group and after 40 hours for the caffeine group. Caffeine usage showed better driver safety, while no caffeine displayed decreased driver safety. Although it is still risky to drive when drowsy, caffeine is a temporary solution when absolutely needed. 

Recently, at a neuroscience seminar at Loyola University Chicago, Gail Baura gave a talk about continuous drowsiness. Specifically, she referred to the drowsiness in truck drivers. In the paper, The Sleep of Long-Haul Truck Drivers, drowsiness in truck drivers were analyzed. The work of truck drivers is mostly done during non-normal working hours. Long, sleepless nights are what the truck drivers become immune to. With long, sleepless nights comes decreased driver safety. Decreased driver safety leads to an increase in vehicular crashes. More and more vehicular crashes are seen everyday. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 100,000 police reported crashes are due to driver fatigue. A way to monitor fatigue in drivers, Baura brought up two types of tests. The first one is the Psychomotor Vigilance test. In this test, responses are recorded to an appearance on a screen. Alertness to an appearance is crucial to avoid crashes. This is especially important since truck drivers tend to work during night hours. Night hours tend to impair our vision because there is no natural light. Our bodies tend to become tired as well after being awake all day. Slower responses mean slower reaction  times, which leads to an increased level of drowsiness. The second test is the PERCLOS. PERCLOS detects when the driver closes their eyes for a long period of time. These two tests are able to detect levels of drowsiness in drivers. However, researchers are still looking for an even more efficient way to look at drowsiness. 

With the combination of the caffeine study and Baura's talk, there are many ways to study drowsiness in drivers. These studies are crucial for the safety of drivers. Both studies laid out how dangerous it is for drivers to be drowsy behind the wheel. 6-8 hours of sleep is of the utmost importance for the safety of all people. Without proper rest, what happens behind the wheel is unforeseeable. Baura's study and the caffeine study are just the start of helping driver safety and bringing down vehicular crashes. 

Works Cited

Baura, Gail. (2017). Speech presented at Neuroscience Seminar, Loyola University Chicago.

“Can a Caffeine Buzz Improve Driving Safety?” Association for Psychological Science, 8 Feb. 2017, www.psychologicalscience.org/news/motr/can-a-caffeine-buzz-improve-driving-safety.html.

“Facts and Stats: Drowsy Driving-Stay Alert, Arrive Alive.” Drowsydriving.org, drowsydriving.org/about/facts-and-stats/.