The Effect of Caffeine and Sleep Quality on Military Pilot Students’ Flight Performance-Related Cognitive Function
Issued Date
2022-01-01
Resource Type
ISSN
24721840
eISSN
24721832
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85125857288
Journal Title
International Journal of Aerospace Psychology
Volume
32
Issue
2-3
Start Page
152
End Page
164
Rights Holder(s)
SCOPUS
Bibliographic Citation
International Journal of Aerospace Psychology Vol.32 No.2-3 (2022) , 152-164
Suggested Citation
Utamatanin N., Pariwatcharakul P. The Effect of Caffeine and Sleep Quality on Military Pilot Students’ Flight Performance-Related Cognitive Function. International Journal of Aerospace Psychology Vol.32 No.2-3 (2022) , 152-164. 164. doi:10.1080/24721840.2022.2034505 Retrieved from: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/84648
Title
The Effect of Caffeine and Sleep Quality on Military Pilot Students’ Flight Performance-Related Cognitive Function
Author(s)
Author's Affiliation
Other Contributor(s)
Abstract
Objective: To assess the effect of caffeine and sleep quality on the flight performance-related cognitive function. Background: High levels of cognitive performance in pilots is required for flight safety. Methods: Students at a military flight school in Thailand were invited to participate in this study. Exclusion criteria was positive screening for caffeine use disorder. We examined three cognitive functions required for flight performance: (1) vigilance (Mackworth Clock Test), (2) situational awareness, including memory (Corsi block-tapping test) and spatial reasoning (mental rotation test), and (3) reaction time (Deary-Liewald task). Neuropsychological tasks were performed before and 30 minutes after drinking a bottle of 220 ml coffee containing 143 mg of caffeine. Sleep quality was measured by the Thai-Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Results: Twenty-nine healthy males without caffeine use disorder with a mean age of 25.1 years were enrolled. After low-dose caffeine intake (<3 mg/kg body weight), cognitive performance improved significantly in vigilance, situation awareness, and reaction time. Baseline cognitive performance was not different between high (HSQ) and low sleep quality (LSQ) groups. After drinking coffee, however, participants with HSQ demonstrated improvements in vigilance and reaction time, while the LSQ group had improved vigilance only. Conclusion: Low dose caffeine improved vigilance, situational awareness, and reaction time which were cognitive functions required for flight performance. The cognitive-enhancing effect of caffeine was more obvious in student pilots with high-quality sleep.