Cooperative teamwork in a simulated control room as a countermeasure against performance impairment due to the combined effects of sleep loss and circadian misalignment

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STUDY OBJECTIVES: Although teamwork under fatigue is highly common in the workplace, the effects of sleep loss on group performance have rarely been studied. Here, we examined whether cooperative teamwork in a control room setting has a protective effect by attenuating performance impairment caused by sleep loss. METHODS: Sixty-six healthy volunteers (32 females, 26 ± 5 [SD] years) were randomly assigned to teams of three to undergo a laboratory study for five consecutive days. They completed tasks in a simulated control room setting calling on different cognitive domains (sustained attention during monitoring, logical reasoning during problem diagnosis) once after 19 hours awake (sleep deprivation, circadian low) and once following 8 hours of scheduled sleep (control) in counterbalanced order. Participants completed the tasks on their own (solo work) and in teams with each member instructed to work to their own advantage (competitive work) or to the team's advantage (cooperative work). Performance, communication, decision behavior, and team cohesion were analyzed. RESULTS: Findings showed during monitoring longer reaction times and more errors under sleep deprivation compared to control, but no interaction between sleep condition and work mode. During diagnosis, sleep-deprived participants were slower, whereas the error rate depended on the work mode: contrary to solo and competitive work, the error rate decreased during cooperative work compared to control. Transcripts revealed that sleep-deprived participants shared fewer incorrect information and reported higher team cohesion than when rested. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that in a control room, teams can compensate for some effects of fatigue on logical reasoning by working cooperatively and adapting their communication behavior.

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