The Influence of Sleep Quality, Vigilance, and Sleepiness on Driving-Related Cognitive Abilities: A Comparison between Young and Older Adults
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates the influence of sleep quality, vigilance, and sleepiness on driving-related cognitive abilities, specifically comparing young and older adults. The research was motivated by the high prevalence of road accidents linked to sleepiness and the mandatory assessment of sleepiness for high-risk drivers in Europe. With an aging global population, understanding how age-related changes in sleep architecture impact daily functioning and driving safety is critical. The authors aimed to determine if sleepiness and sleep quality measures predict driving-related cognitive skills in both age groups and to identify differences between them. The study involved 80 healthy participants, divided into two groups: 40 young adults (mean age 26.2) and 40 older adults (mean age 66.6). All participants had at least two years of driving experience and were screened for sleep disorders, psychiatric conditions, and cognitive impairment. Sleep quality and sleepiness were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Driving-related cognitive abilities were evaluated using the Vienna Test System TRAFFIC, which measured selective attention (Cognitrone), tachistoscopic perception (ATAVT), and risk assumption (WRB-TV). Data were analyzed using two-way ANOVAs to test for age and gender differences, and multiple regressions to identify predictors of driving performance. Results indicated significant age-related differences in sleep and cognitive performance. Older adults exhibited lower habitual sleep efficiency and higher daytime dysfunction compared to younger adults. Unexpectedly, younger subjects reported higher subjective sleepiness levels on the KSS. In terms of driving-related cognitive abilities, older adults demonstrated significantly longer response times in selective attention tasks and lower performance in tachistoscopic perception tests. However, older adults appeared more cautious in risk-assumption scenarios, showing a higher readiness to avoid risky traffic situations. Multiple regression analyses revealed that age was the only robust predictor of driving-related cognitive abilities. When age was excluded from the models, no other sleep or vigilance measures remained statistically significant predictors after correcting for multiple comparisons. The study concludes that while older adults show declines in specific cognitive skills relevant to driving, such as attention and perception speed, they compensate by adopting more cautious risk-taking behaviors. Crucially, the findings suggest that self-reported sleepiness and objective vigilance measures do not significantly predict driving-related cognitive performance when age is accounted for. This implies that age itself is the primary factor influencing these cognitive abilities, rather than transient states of sleepiness or general sleep quality metrics used in this study. The authors note that this is the first study to examine these relationships in a sufficiently large sample, though they caution that the results are preliminary and do not fully elucidate how specific sleep architecture changes impact everyday driving skills in the elderly.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| archive | success | openalex | — | — | 5 | 2026-08-09 |
| extract | success | pdftotext | — | — | 4 | 2026-08-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-08-09 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-nvidia | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 17 | 2026-08-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-08-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-nvidia on 2026-08-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
- drowsiness
- cognitive capacity variation
- sleep deprivation
- drowsiness detection algorithms
- vigilance
- time on task
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: physiological data, behavioral performance data
- Theoretical Contribution: theory or model