Effect of sleep wake disorder on ocular health and visual performance of night shift drivers

Abstract

PURPOSE: Current study aimed to investigate the relation of sleep disturbance on ocular health and visual performance during night driving among professional night shift drivers.

METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study including 40 night shift male professional drivers (Age ranging from 26-55 years). After taking informed consent, data related to night driving, sleep, ocular health problems) and visual performance was collected from all these subjects by self-designed pro-forma. Visual functions were assessed..

RESULTS: Sleep wake disorders were not prevalent as 7 (17.5%) drivers declared disturbed sleep and 9 (22.5%) experienced it sometimes. Among ocular health problems, 12.5% drivers had ocular burning, 20% with eye redness, 10% with itching, 12.5% with watering, 30% with ocular fatigue and 40% drivers reported flashlight piercing during night driving. 17.5% drivers feel decrease of visual performance with passage of time. 2.5% drivers had occasional difficulty to recognize traffic signals and 5% reported seldom difficulty to recognize sign boards and other objects during night driving. Four (10%) drivers were involved in road crashes, three (7.5%) with normal and one (2.5%) with defective VA. There was no statistically significant correlation of sleep disturbance with ocular health and visual performance.. Ocular health problems including redness, watering ocular burning and above all fatigue were common among night drivers (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION: Sleep wake disorder is not common among night drivers and it has no statistically significant relation regarding its effects on ocular health and visual performance. However, ocular fatigue is common with frequent or occasional sleep disturbance.

KEYWORDS:  sleep wake disorders,  ocular .