The impact of 23h total sleep deprivation on gaze entropy and performance in a 6df docking simulation

Abstract

Background. Fatigue is a pressing problem in driving, aviation, and spaceflight. Gaze characteristics are important means to detect the effect of fatigue on operational performance. This study investigates the effect of short-term total sleep deprivation on scanning efficiency, spatial distribution of fixations by means of gaze entropy and performance in a spacecraft docking task, during which participants had to manually control a spacecraft with six degrees of freedom. Methods. A counterbalanced crossover design with a sleep deprivation condition and a control condition as well as linear mixed models were used to analyse the data of 61 participants between the ages of 20 and 39 years (M = 24.90, SD = 4.68). Subjective fatigue ratings were collected before each test session, wherein the participants conducted a sustained attention task as well as the docking task. During the test session, eye-tracking data was continuously recorded. Results. An interaction between sleep deprivation and gender of the participants significantly affected Gaze Transition Entropy (F(1, 54.6) = 7.84, p < .01, f2m = .03) and Stationary Gaze Entropy (F(1, 55.5) = 5.08, p < .05, f2m = .03). Additionally, a significant association between Gaze Transition Entropy and docking performance depending on trial difficulty was found (F(2, 682.2) = 3.79, p < .05, f2m = .02). Docking performance was significantly affected by an interaction between sleep deprivation susceptibility to sleep deprivation (F(1, 666.6) = 4.08, p < .05, f2m = .01) in one of the models. Conclusion. While the expected performance decrements in a manual 6df docking simulation due to sleep deprivation can be compensated for relatively well, the moderating role of susceptibility to sleep deprivation should not be underestimated. Additionally, the complexity with which individuals capture information is significantly altered in sleep deprived female participants