Study Data from C.J. Hilditch and Co-Authors Update Knowledge of Risk Management (Sleep inertia associated with a 10-min nap before the commute home…

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Study Data from C.J. Hilditch and Co-Authors Update Knowledge of Risk Management (Sleep inertia associated with a 10-min nap before the commute home following a night shift: A laboratory simulation study)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- A new study on Risk Management is now available. According to news originating from Adelaide, Australia, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "Night shift workers are at risk of road accidents due to sleepiness on the commute home. A brief nap at the end of the night shift, before the commute, may serve as a sleepiness countermeasure."

Financial support for this research came from University of South Australia Divisional Research Performance Funds.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "However, there is potential for sleep inertia, i.e. transient impairment immediately after awakening from the nap. We investigated whether sleep inertia diminishes the effectiveness of napping as a sleepiness countermeasure before a simulated commute after a simulated night shift. N = 21 healthy subjects (aged 21-35 y; 12 females) participated in a 3-day laboratory study. After a baseline night, subjects were kept awake for 27 h for a simulated night shift. They were randomised to either receive a 10-min nap ending at 04:00 plus a 10-min pre-drive nap ending at 07:10 (10-NAP) or total sleep deprivation (NO-NAP). A 40-min York highway driving task was performed at 07:15 to simulate the commute. A 3-min psychomotor vigilance test (PVT-B) and the Samn-Perelli Fatigue Scale (SP-Fatigue) were administered at 06:30 (pre-nap), 07:12 (post-nap), and 07:55 (post-drive). In the 10-NAP condition, total pre-drive nap sleep time was 9.1 +/- 1.2 min (mean +/- SD), with 1.3 +/- 1.9 min spent in slow wave sleep, as determined polysomnographically. There was no difference between conditions in PVT-B performance at 06:30 (before the nap). In the 10-NAP condition, PVT-B performance was worse after the nap (07:12) compared to before the nap (06:30); no change across time was found in the NO-NAP condition. There was no significant difference between conditions in PVT-B performance after the drive. SP-Fatigue and driving performance did not differ significantly between conditions."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "The pre-drive nap showed objective, but not subjective, evidence of sleep inertia immediately after awakening. The 10-min nap did not affect driving performance during the simulated commute home, and was not effective as a sleepiness countermeasure."

For more information on this research see: Sleep inertia associated with a 10-min nap before the commute home following a night shift: A laboratory simulation study. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2017;99():411-415. Accident Analysis and Prevention can be contacted at: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Accident Analysis and Prevention - www.journals.elsevier.com/accident-analysis-and-prevention/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from C.J. Hilditch, Univ South Australia, Center Sleep Res, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. Additional authors for this research include J. Dorrian, S.A. Centofanti, H.P. Van Dongen and S. Banks.

Keywords for this news article include: Adelaide, Australia, Australia and New Zealand, Risk Management, Risk and Prevention.