Sleep deprivation countermeasures

Stutts, J. C. (2000). Sleep deprivation countermeasures of motorist safety. NCHRP Synthesis 287. Transportation Research Board, Washington DC. 

De Valck, E. Cluydts, R. (2001). Slow-release caffeine as a countermeasure to driver sleepiness induced by partial sleep deprivation./. Sleep Res. 10 (3), 203-9. 

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research s Department of Behavioral Biology has developed a field-deployable version of a commercial Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) that has been widely used in sleep research. The software runs on handheld PDAs running the Palm Operating System (Palm OS). It is modeled after the simple reaction time task of Wilkinson and Houghton,57 as modified by Dinges and Powell.58 The Palm OS version incorporates additional stimulus, feedback, control, and data options developed by Dr. Thome. In laboratory studies, performance on the PDA task has been shown to be sensitive to time-on-task fatigue effects, sleep deprivation, and circadian variation.18 Field studies have utilized the PVT to measure the efficacy of caffeine gum as a sleep loss countermeasure. 

Wright KP, Jr., Badia P, Myers BL, Plenzler SC. Combination of bright light and caffeine as a countermeasure for impaired alertness and performance during extended sleep deprivation. J Sleep Res 1997 6 26-35. 

LeDuc PA, Caldwell JA, Ruyak PS. The effects of exercise as a countermeasure for fatigue in sleep-deprived aviators. Milit Psychol 2000 12(4) 249-266. 

Dinges DF. Homeostatic and circadian regulation of wakefulness during jet lag and sleep deprivation effect of wake-promoting countermeasures. AFOSR Technical Report No. 31-08-2000. Arlington, VA Air Force Office of Scientific Research. 2000. 

A typical countermeasure used by sleepy drivers is to turn on the air conditioner or open a window. Two aspects of this stimulus can be considered in analyzing it as a countermeasure. The first is the cold temperature of the stimulus, or in the least a change in temperature. There has been very little study of the effectiveness of cold temperature as a countermeasure. The simulated automobile drive study cited above also included a cold-air condition produced by the automobile air conditioner (22). As with the radio, cold air had a minimal and transitory alerting effect. The fact that temperature change may be the critical factor is seen in a study that showed heat (92°F) improved performance from basal levels during sleep deprivation, although the impact was very time-limited (24). 

Batejat DM, Lagarde DP. Naps and modafinil as countermeasures for the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance. Aviat Space Environ Med 1999 70 493-8. 

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