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Overview

Countermeasures for Performance Deficits from Sleep Loss and Workload in Spaceflight

Principal Investigator:
David F. Dinges, Ph.D.

Organization:
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Working in space requires astronauts to perform at their best while facing demanding workloads and long work days. Their sleep is often restricted and disrupted due to busy work schedules and the need to handle operational events. Dr. David F. Dinges is leading a project to collect information on the combined effects of a highly challenging workload and sleep reductions on performance and sleep need. The project will also complete the validation of a three-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) Self Test that could be used by astronauts to evaluate performance changes and the need for countermeasures. The study seeks to identify biobehavioral predictors of vulnerability to the cognitive effects of sleep loss and high workload to be used for developing individualized models that predict performance in space.

NASA Taskbook Entry

Technical Summary

To be able to carry out mission-critical tasks at any time during a mission, astronauts must maintain a high level of performance in the face of demanding workloads and work-rest schedules that result in chronic sleep restriction.

This research will use a laboratory-based study to acquire critically-needed information on the effects on performance of high cognitive workload and sleep restriction. We will test the hypothesis that as sleep restriction accumulates, it will potentiate the performance-impairing effects of higher cognitive workload. Another key goal of the study is to provide astronauts with an objective way to identify performance changes and the need for countermeasures for fatigue from sleep restriction and high workload. To this end, the project will complete validation of the sensitivity of the three-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) Self Test to high workload and sleep restriction. PVT Self Test feedback interfaces will also be evaluated, and the task will be tested in analog operations to establish its technical feasibility. Tertiary goals of the project include identification of biobehavioral predictors of differential vulnerability to the cognitive effects of sleep restriction and high workload and the development of individualized biomathematical models that predict performance on the PVT Self Test during high workload.

To date, 59 of the 80 subjects needed have completed the laboratory protocol. Thus the project is 73.75% completed. Data acquisition will continue at this rate in the coming year to ensure the project ends with the required number of subjects needed to evaluate the effects of high cognitive workload and sleep restriction on performance.

 

Earth Applications

The research builds on an extensive body of work we have conducted to help manage the cognitive performance of astronauts in space while they undergo high workload and sleep restriction. The acquisition of critically needed knowledge on how these factors potentiate fatigue effects on performance will help set standards and improve individualized mathematical models that predict countermeasure needs. The continued development of the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) Self Test will offer a tool by which astronauts can autonomously assess their performance fitness and make decisions about countermeasures. These deliverables will also have utility in a broad range of Earth-based applications in which sleep restriction and workload have major adverse impacts on human performance (e.g., transportation modes, power plants and military operations).