A new study has revealed that people, who are more active through the night time, are bad at driving during early mornings.
Researchers from the University of Granada have found that some people are 'morning-types' and others 'evening-types', as a function of the time of day when their biological and cognitive functions are more active and this has a marked influence on the individual's capacity to react when behind the driving wheel.
Evening-types drive worse during early mornings by comparison with their optimal time during the evening; however, morning-types are more stable drivers, both in the morning and the evening
Angel Correa, principal author of the study said that certain professions involve performing tasks that require good attention vigilance like airline pilots, supervisors in nuclear power stations or surgeons.
He further explained that a particular time of day can be a good or bad to perform these tasks as a function of the chronotype of the individual involved, although there are times that are bad for everyone, like siesta time or in the early hours between 3.00 and 5.00.
The researchers also suggested that driving after more than 18 hours wakefulness entails the same level of risk as driving with the legal maximum level of blood alcohol, because our level of vigilance declines considerably.
The study is published in Accident Analysis and Prevention.