Driving Performance and Driver State in Obstructive Sleep Apnea: What Changes with Positive Airway Pressure?

We evaluated naturalistic driving in 65 drivers with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) before and after positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy and in 43 comparison drivers. Driving performance metrics included speed (mean, variability), and lateral, and longitudinal acceleration (g’s). Driver state measures included sleepiness and attention to the driving task based on sampled trigger and baseline video clips. OSA drivers showed less variability in speed and lateral g’s compared to control drivers before and after PAP treatment when vehicle speed wa