ABSTRACT
Reduced opportunity for sleep and reduced sleep quality are frequently related to accidents involving shift-workers. Poor quality sleep and inadequate recovery lead to increase fatigue decreased alertness and impaired performance in a variety of cognitive psychomotor tests. However, the risks associated with fatigue are not well quantified. The chapter equates the performance impairment caused by fatigue with that due to alcohol intoxication, and shows that moderate levels of fatigue produce higher levels of impairment than the proscribed level of alcohol intoxication. Performance is decreased significantly in both conditioned. Between the tenth and twenty-sixth hours of wakefulness, mean relative performance on the tracking task is decreased by 0.74% per hour. Regression analysis in the sustained wakefulness condition revealed a linear correlation between mean relative performance and hours of wakefulness that accounted for roughly 90% of the variance.
