BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL AND FATIGUE EFFECTS ON A SIMULATED DRIVING TEST

INITIAL EXPERIMENTATION WAS CONDUCTED IN AN ATTEMPT TO MEASURE EFFECTS OF BLOOD SUGAR LEVEL ON TIRED DRIVERS, WHO "DROVE" FOR APPROXIMATELY ONE HOUR IN A SIMULATOR LABORATORY. THE RESEARCH PLAN TOOK INTO ACCOUNT THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF SUGGESTION IF EITHER THE EXPERIMENTERS OR THE SUBJECTS KNEW WHICH DRIVERS WERE INGESTING SUGAR BEFORE BEING TESTED. THE POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF PRACTICE "DRIVING" THE SIMULATOR DEVICE WERE AVOIDED BY SPACING THE TRIALS AT LEAST TWO WEEKS APART, AND BY EQUATING THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE ACTUAL SUGAR WAS TAKEN ON THE SECOND TRIAL. THE TWO GROUPS OF SUBJECTS WERE TESTED: GROUP I UNDER EXTREME CONDITIONS (24 HOURS WITHOUT SLEEP), AND GROUP II WITH FROM 3 TO 5 HOURS OF SLEEP THE NIGHT PRECEDING. THE AMOUNT OF SUGAR WAS ONE GRAM PER KILOGRAM OF BODY WEIGHT FOR GROUP I AND APPROXIMATELY ONE-HALF THAT AMOUNT FOR GROUP II. RESULTS SHOW THAT FOR GROUP I, WHEN REAL SUGAR WAS INGESTED, THE SUBJECTS HAD LESS DIFFICULTY REMAINING ALERT. FOR GROUP II (WHO HAD MORE SLEEP AND LESS SUGAR THAN GROUP I) THERE WAS NO SUCH CLEAR-CUT DIFFERENCE IN ABILITY TO REMAIN ALERT. IT IS CONCLUDED THAT THIS INITIAL RESEARCH SHOULD BE CARRIED FURTHER BEFORE IT WOULD BE SAFE TO RECOMMEND THE EATING OF CANDY AS A MEANS OF OFF-SETTING FATIGUE WHILE DRIVING. /SRIS/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Rpt No63-53, 24PP, 3FIG, 5TAB, 15REF
• Corporate Authors:

  Itte, Calif Univ, Los Angeles

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Hulbert, S
  • Case, H W
• Publication Date: 1963-10

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood; Blood analysis; Drivers; Driving simulators; Fatigue (Physiological condition); Sleep; Sugar
• Old TRIS Terms: Blood tests
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00223185
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Nat Safety Council Safety Res Info Serv
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 26 1970 12:00AM