Effects of sleep loss on team communication in a control room simulation

Kurzfassung

Introduction: Communication is essential for good team performance in operational settings as it enables coordinative activities. However, little is known about the effects of sleep loss due to adverse working times on team communication. We examined how sleepiness affects verbal communication in a simulated control room task and whether team communication is associated with performance. Method: Sixty-six healthy volunteers (32 females, mean age ± SD: 26 ± 5 years) participated in a 5-day laboratory study during which they were assigned to teams of three to complete a simulated control room task once during daytime after 1 h of wakefulness (control), and once during the circadian low after 19 h of wakefulness (sleep deprivation). The task included monitoring for system failures (monitoring task) and identifying the cause of system failures (diagnosis task) and was conducted with team members instructed to work to the team’s advantage (cooperative work mode) or to their own advantage (competitive work mode) in each sleep condition. Verbal communication was recorded, transcribed into text files, and categorized. In the monitoring task, the amount of shared information relevant for task completion was counted, while the frequency of shared conclusions and their correctness were determined in the diagnosis task. These communication indicators were related to performance parameters (reaction time, accuracy). Results: In the monitoring task, the amount of information shared among team members increased during sleep loss compared to control (p < .01) and was associated with faster reaction times (r = -.15, p < .05). In the diagnosis task, participants shared fewer incorrect information during sleep deprivation than during control (p < .05) which was associated with higher accuracy (r = -.45, p < .001). These differences of communication behavior, however, were only evident during cooperative teamwork, but not during competitive teamwork. Conclusion: The effects of sleep loss on team communication showed that team members adapt their communication under fatigue depending on task and work mode. The correlation between this adapted communication behavior and performance measures suggests that cooperative teamwork in a control room setting may promote support processes to counteract negative effects of fatigue.