The Effects of Exercise as a Countermeasure for Fatigue in Sleep Deprived Aviators

This study was designed to examine the efficacy of a nonpharmacological intervention, exercise, for sustaining performance despite a moderate amount of sleep loss. Twelve subjects were individually tested during two, 40-hour periods of sleep deprivation. Volunteers engaged in 10-minute bouts of exer...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: LeDuc, Patricia A, Caldwell, John A., Jr, Ruyak, Peggy S, Prazinko, Brian, Gardner, Susan
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
COGNITION
ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY
EXERCISE(PHYSIOLOGY)
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FATIGUE
PE62787A
PERFORMANCE(HUMAN)
PERSONALITY TESTS
PILOTS
REACTION TIME
REST
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Stress Physiology
WUDA336185
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Summary:This study was designed to examine the efficacy of a nonpharmacological intervention, exercise, for sustaining performance despite a moderate amount of sleep loss. Twelve subjects were individually tested during two, 40-hour periods of sleep deprivation. Volunteers engaged in 10-minute bouts of exercise during one period and rested for an equivalent amount of time during the other period. Data included electroencephalography, Repeated Tests of Sustained Wakefulness, and Visual Analog Scale. Subjective changes in mood were examined using the Profile of Mood States. Cognitive evaluations were measured using the Multi Attribute Task Battery and Synthetic Work Battery. Flight performance was measured using the MINISIM, a flight simulation task. The results of this study indicate that exercise does have short-term alerting effects in sleep deprived subjects. Subjects were more alert immediately following exercise as evidenced by longer latencies to stage 2 sleep than when they did not exercise during sleep deprivation. However, the alerting effects of exercise were very short lived. EEG data collected 50 minutes following exercise or rest showed that exercise facilitated increases in slow-wave activity (signs of decreased alertness) above those seen during rest. Cognitive deficits and slowed reaction times associated with sleep loss were equivalent in both the exercise and rest conditions. Taken together, the results from this study suggest that exercise may ameliorate some of the increases in sleepiness and fatigue associated with sleep loss for a short period of time (30 min) but will not prevent performance decrements. Additionally, less than one hour following exercise, significant increases in fatigue and sleepiness may occur.