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October 27, 2014 6:00 PM, EDT

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration plans to conduct a 90-day on-highway pilot program that will evaluate if split sleeper berth breaks will affect truck driver fatigue, a top agency official said Oct. 27.

Martin Walker, chief of FMCSA’s research division, told an agency advisory committee that the pilot could begin as early as January 2016 after the agency completes administrative requirements, gains White House clearance and recruits 200 drivers to participate in the pilot.

The so-called flexible sleeper berth pilot would allow drivers to split their eight hours of sleep into two or more blocks, Walker told FMCSA’s Motor Carrier Advisory Committee. For example, a 2-hour nap taken in the daytime will not count against a driver’s 14-hour daily work time, he said.

The pilot will utilize technology to measure such possible signs of driver fatigue as eye closures, lane departures and hard braking among drivers splitting their sleep schedules.

Walker said a 2010-11 laboratory study with 53 participants showed that the daytime consolidated sleep group slept less, had increased sleepiness, and an increase in blood glucose and testosterone at the end of the work week.ÌýÌý

The lab study results suggested that when consolidated nighttime sleep was not possible, split sleep is preferable to consolidated daytime sleep.

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