Effects on Consciousness - Sleep Deprivation Compared to BAC Flashcards

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1
Q

What is sleep in terms of consciousness?

A

a natural occurring altered state

unconscious and unaware of inner and outer stimuli

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2
Q

What does sleep deprivation do in the short term?

A

Makes you tired
irritable
cognitively impaired

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3
Q

What did Dawson and Reid discover in their experiment (1997)?

A

They compared levels of sleep deprivation that could be equivalent to different BAC percentages

the experiment consisted of keep participants awake for 24 hours and measuring their cognitive abilities as time passed, they called this ‘sustained consciousness’

by hour 17 performance had decreased to a BAC of 0.05% comparatively

by hour 24 performance was equivalent to a BAC of 0.10%

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4
Q

What is the legal limit of blood alcohol concentration?

A

fully licensed adults - 0.05%

learners and P platers - 0%

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5
Q

What is the experimental design for the sleep deprivation study?

A

40 participants

repeated measures

the first condition were awake for 28 hours (8am-12 noon next day)

the second condition were asked to reach BAC 0.10% by drinking 15 grams of alcohol every half hour

each condition was assessed every half hour for ‘cognitive psychomotor performance’

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6
Q

What is ‘cognitive psychomotor performance’ ?

A

a computer administered hand-eye coordination test with unpredictable tracking was used in the experiment

hand-eye coordination refers to visual processing that guide hand movements

the test requires concentration, speed, accuracy and decision making to be used

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7
Q

What results did the experiment find?

A

performance on tasks decreased a lot in each condition

Statistical analysis led Dawson and Reid to conclude that the effects of moderate sleep deprivation (around 17 hours) on performance can be compared to moderate alcohol intoxication (0.05%).

Extreme sleep deprivation (24 hours) performance results are similar to a BAC of 0.1

Furthermore, the results showed that the performance impairment effects of moderate sleep deprivation are equivalent to or greater than the level of alcohol that is deemed legally unacceptable when driving, working and/or operating dangerous machinery

harder to generalise bc the computer created simple tasks

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