Citation

Forsman P, Wallin A, Tietäväinen A, Haeggström E. Conf. Proc. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2008; 1: 686-688.

Affiliation

Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers))

DOI

unavailable

PMID

19162748

Abstract

Although sleepiness is a major risk factor in traffic and occupational accidents, convenient, quantitative, and commercial sleepiness testing is lacking. The issue is relevant to policymakers concerned with legislation for, and surveillance of, traffic- and occupational safety. This work suggested and examined posturographic sleepiness testing for instrumentation purposes. In 63 subjects -for whom we tested balance with a force platform during sustained waking for maximum 36 h- sustained waking impaired the balance. The sustained waking explained 60% of the diurnal balance variations, whereas the time of day explained 40% of the balance variations. The first finding -- that balance depends on the subject's time awake (TA)-- allowed to posturographically estimate the subjects' TA with 86% accuracy and 97% precision. Results also show that balance scores tested at 13:30 hours serve as a threshold to detect excessive sleepiness. This work provides guidelines for a posturographic sleepiness tester.

Language: en