Decreased psychomotor vigilance of female shift workers after working night shifts

作者：Thomas Behrens, Katarzyna Burek, Dirk Pallapies, Leoni Kösters, Martin Lehnert, Alexandra Beine, Katharina Wichert, Thomas Kantermann, Céline Vetter, Thomas Brüning, Sylvia Rabstein · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0219087 · 被引用次数：75 · 研究领域：Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue、Sleep and related disorders、Workplace Health and Well-being

BACKGROUND: We compared psychomotor vigilance in female shift workers of the Bergmannsheil University Hospital in Bochum, Germany (N = 74, 94% nurses) after day and night shifts. METHODS: Participants performed a 3-minute Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) test bout at the end of two consecutive day and three consecutive night shifts, respectively. Psychomotor vigilance was analyzed with respect to mean reaction time, percentage of lapses and false starts, and throughput as an overall performance score, combining reaction time and error frequencies. We also determined the reaction time coefficient of variation (RTCV) to assess relative reaction time variability after day and night shifts. Further, we examined the influence of shift type (night vs. day) by mixed linear models with associated 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusted for age, chronotype, study day, season, and the presence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). RESULTS: At the end of a night shift, reaction times were increased (β = 7.64; 95% CI 0.94; 14.35) and the number of lapses higher compared to day shifts (exp(β) = 1.55; 95% CI 1.16-2.08). By contrast, we did not observe differences in the number of false starts between day and night shifts. Throughput was reduced after night shifts (β = -15.52; 95% CI -27.49; -3.46). Reaction times improved across consecutive day and night shifts, whereas the frequency of lapses decreased after the third night. RTCV remained unaffected by both, night shifts and consecutive shift...