Background: Driving performance is strongly vulnerable to drowsiness and vigilance fluctuations. Excessive sleepiness may alter concentration, alertness, and reaction times. As people age, sleep undergoes some changes, becoming fragmented and less deep. However, the effects of these modifications on daily life have not been sufficiently investigated. Recently, the assessment of sleepiness became mandatory in Europe for people at risk who need the driving license release. Moreover, considering the expectation that people around the world are rapidly aging, it is necessary to investigate the relationships between senescence sleep changes, vigilance levels, and driving-related cognitive skills. Method: 80 healthy subjects (40 young adults and 40 elders) participated in the study. Sleep quality, sleepiness, and vigilance levels were assessed through the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, and the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT). Driving-related cognitive abilities were assessed through Vienna Test System TRAFFIC, investigating selective attention, tachistoscopic perception, and risk assumption. Results: 2 × 2 between-subject ANOVAs showed less habitual sleep efficiency and worse performances in PVT in the older group. Unexpectedly, younger subjects show higher self-rated sleepiness. Moreover, older adults have lower performance in attention and perception tests, but they appear to be more cautious in situations involving traffic. Finally, the multiple regressions show age to be the only robust predictor of cognitive driving-related abilities. Conclusions: This is the first study that investigates the relationships among sleepiness/vigilance and specific driving-related cognitive skills on a sufficiently large sample. Nevertheless, the study should be considered preliminary and does not allow us to understand how specific changes in sleep architecture impact performances in the elders’ everyday life and, specifically, on driving skills.

中文翻译：

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睡眠质量，警觉性和嗜睡性对与驾驶相关的认知能力的影响：年轻人和老年人之间的比较。

背景：驾驶性能极易受到困倦和警觉性波动的影响。过度嗜睡可能会改变注意力，警觉性和反应时间。随着人们年龄的增长，睡眠会发生一些变化，变得支离破碎，深度降低。但是，尚未充分研究这些修饰对日常生活的影响。最近，在欧洲，对于需要发放驾驶执照的处于危险之中的人们，必须进行困倦评估。此外，考虑到世界各地人们正在迅速衰老，因此有必要研究衰老睡眠变化，警惕程度和与驾驶相关的认知技能之间的关系。方法：80位健康受试者（40位年轻人和40位老年人）参加了研究。通过匹兹堡睡眠质量指数，Karolinska睡眠量表，Epworth睡眠量表和心理运动警惕任务（PVT）评估睡眠质量，嗜睡和警惕性水平。通过维也纳测试系统TRAFFIC评估与驾驶相关的认知能力，调查选择性注意，镜检知觉和风险假设。结果：2×2受试者间方差分析显示，较年长组的习惯性睡眠效率较低，PVT表现较差。出乎意料的是，年轻的受试者表现出更高的自我评估困倦感。此外，老年人在注意力和知觉测试中的表现较低，但在涉及交通的情况下似乎更为谨慎。最后，多元回归表明年龄是认知驾驶相关能力的唯一可靠预测指标。结论：这是第一项研究，在足够大的样本上，研究了嗜睡/警觉与特定驾驶相关的认知技能之间的关系。然而，该研究应被视为初步研究，不能使我们了解睡眠结构的具体变化如何影响老年人的日常生活，尤其是驾驶技能。