Citation

Innes CR, Poudel GR, Signal T, Jones RD. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2010; 2010: 4448-4451.

Affiliation

Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, Christchurch Hospital, 8011, New Zealand.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers))

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2010.5625953

PMID

21095768

Abstract

Sleep-deprived people, or those performing extended monotonous tasks, frequently have brief episodes when performance is suspended and they appear to fall asleep momentarily - behavioural microsleeps (BMs). As BM rates are highly variable between normally-rested people, this study aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between propensity for BMs and measures of sleep. Subjects undertook a continuous 50-min 2-D tracking task and BMs were identified with high temporal accuracy based on simultaneous analysis of visuomotor response, tracking speed, tracking error, vertical electrooculogram, and eye-video. BM rates and durations were correlated with measures of sleep (i.e., wrist actigraphy, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Horne-Ostberg Morning-Eveningness Questionnaire). BMs occurred frequently during the task but rates were highly variable between participants (mean 79.1/h ± 66.2, range 0-226/h). There were correlations between ESS score and BM rate and duration. However, BMs were not related to other sleep measures. Thus, there is a very large variability in BM propensity in normally-rested subjects which cannot be explained by variation in sleep duration, quality, or efficiency. Propensity to fall asleep in situations in which sustained performance is required may be a trait characteristic in normally-rested people.

Language: en