Laboratory and Field Studies of Naps and Caffeine as Practical Countermeasures For Sleep-Wake Problems Associated With Night Work

Schweitzer, Paula K.; Randazzo, Angela C.; Stone, Kara; Erman, Milton K.; Walsh, James K.

doi:10.1093/sleep/29.1.39

Cited by 161 publications

(105 citation statements)

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“…54,55 Thus, judicious use of caffeine may be recommended in hospital practices during extended work hours. Other wake-promoting agents, such as modafinil and armodafinil, are US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved in the treatment of excessive sleepiness associated with SWD.…”

Section: Wake-promoting Agentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep and circadian misalignment for the hospitalist: A review

Schaefer

Williams

Zee

2012

Journal of Hospital Medicine

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Shift work is necessary for hospitalists to provide on‐site 24‐hour patient care. Like all shift workers, hospitalists working beyond daylight hours are subject to a misalignment between work obligations and the endogenous circadian system, which regulates sleep and alertness patterns. With chronic misalignment, sleep loss accumulates and can lead to shift work disorder or other chronic medical conditions. Hospitalists suffering from sleep deprivation also risk increased rates of medical errors. By realigning work and circadian schedules, a process called circadian adaptation, hospitalists can limit fatigue and potentially improve safety. Adaptation strategies include improving sleep hygiene before work, caffeine use at the start of the night shift, bright light exposure and planned naps during the shift, and short‐term use of a mild hypnotic after night work. If these attempts fail and chronic fatigue persists, then a diagnosis of shift work disorder should be considered, which can be treated with stronger pharmacotherapy. Night float scheduling strategies may also help to limit chronic sleep loss. More research is urgently needed regarding the sleep patterns and job performance of hospitalists working at night to improve scheduling decisions and patient safety. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2012; © 2012 Society of Hospital Medicine

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Section: Wake-promoting Agentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep and circadian misalignment for the hospitalist: A review

Schaefer

Williams

Zee

2012

Journal of Hospital Medicine

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“…Short naps are frequently recommended as a strategy to minimise these effects (Å kerstedt, 2006;Bonneford et al, 2004;Schweitzer et al, 2006). Napping preceding night work has been demonstrated to be an effective countermeasure, both in laboratory studies and field settings (Dinges et al, 1987;Harma et al, 1989;Schweitzer et al, 1992Schweitzer et al, , 2006.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scheduled napping as a countermeasure to sleepiness in air traffic controllers

Signal

Gander

Anderson³

et al. 2009

Journal of Sleep Research

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SUMMAR Y The aims of this study were to measure sleep during a planned nap on the night shift;and to use objective measures of performance and alertness to compare the effects of the nap opportunity versus staying awake. Twenty-eight air traffic controllers (mean age 36 years, nine women) completed four night shifts (two with early starts and two with late starts). Each type of night shift (early ⁄ late start) included a 40-min planned nap opportunity on one occasion and no nap on the other. Polysomnographic data were used to measure sleep and waking alertness [spectral power in the electroencephalogram (EEG) during the last hour of the night shift and the occurrence of slow rolling eye movements (SEMs) subsequent to the nap]. Psychomotor performance task [Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT)] was completed at the beginning and end of the shift, and after the nap (or an equivalent time if no nap was taken). Nap sleep latencies were relatively long (mean = 19 min) and total sleep time short (mean = 18 min), with minimal slow wave sleep (SWS, mean = 0%), and no rapid eye movement sleep. Nap sleep resulted in improved PVT performance (mean and slowest 10% of reaction time events), decreased spectral power in the EEG and reduced the likelihood of SEMs. The occurrence of SWS in the nap decreased spectral power in the EEG. This study indicates that although sleep taken at work is likely to be short and of poor quality it still results in an improvement in objective measures of alertness and performance.k e y w o r d s air traffic control, naps, neurophysiological alertness, night shift, psychomotor performance, within-subjects field study

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“…Prior studies of performance during nightshift work have directly compared caffeine and napping in on a variety of tasks (Schweitzer et al 2006;Sagaspe et al 2007). For example, recently, Sagaspe and colleagues compared the effects of a single 200mg dose of caffeine to a 30min nap and placebo on nocturnal driving in young and middle-aged participants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the benefits of caffeine, naps and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory

Mednick

Cai

Kanady

et al. 2008

Behavioural Brain Research

104

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Caffeine, the world's most common psychoactive substance, is used by approximately 90% of North Americans everyday. Little is known, however, about its benefits for memory. Napping has been shown to increase alertness and promote learning on some memory tasks. We directly compared caffeine (200mg) with napping (60-90 minutes) and placebo on three distinct memory processes: declarative verbal memory, procedural motor skills, and perceptual learning. In the verbal task, recall and recognition for unassociated words were tested after a 7hr retention period (with a betweensession nap or drug intervention). A second, different, word list was administered post-intervention and memory was tested after a 20min retention period. The non-declarative tasks (finger tapping task and texture discrimination task) were trained before the intervention and then retested afterwards. Naps enhanced recall of words after a 7hr and 20min retention interval relative to both caffeine and placebo. Caffeine significantly impaired motor learning compared to placebo and naps. Napping produced robust perceptual learning compared with placebo; however, naps and caffeine were not significantly different. These findings provide evidence of the limited benefits of caffeine for memory improvement compared with napping. We hypothesize that impairment from caffeine may be restricted to tasks that contain explicit information; whereas strictly implicit learning is less compromised.

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Laboratory and Field Studies of Naps and Caffeine as Practical Countermeasures For Sleep-Wake Problems Associated With Night Work

Abstract: Napping plus caffeine helps improve performance and alertness of night-shift workers.

Cited by 161 publications

References 0 publications

Sleep and circadian misalignment for the hospitalist: A review

Sleep and circadian misalignment for the hospitalist: A review

Scheduled napping as a countermeasure to sleepiness in air traffic controllers

Comparing the benefits of caffeine, naps and placebo on verbal, motor and perceptual memory

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