Age and adjustment to night work

OBJECTIVE--The study was designed to examine the effects of age on sleep and the circadian rhythms during consecutive night shifts. METHODS--Two groups of letter sorters (19-29 (n = 7) and 53-59 (n = 7) years of age were studied in a sleep laboratory under closely controlled conditions. After two ba...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Occupational and environmental medicine (London, England) England), 1994-08, Vol.51 (8), p.568-573
Main Authors: Härmä, M I, Hakola, T, Akerstedt, T, Laitinen, J T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Physiological - physiology
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Alertness
Applied physiology
Beds
Biological and medical sciences
Body Temperature
Circadian rhythm
Circadian Rhythm - physiology
Circadian rhythms
Ergonomics. Work place. Occupational physiology
Female
Human physiology applied to population studies and life conditions. Human ecophysiology
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Night tables
Night work
P values
Shift work
Sleep
Sleep - physiology
Sleep deprivation
Space life sciences
Wakefulness - physiology
Work Schedule Tolerance - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:OBJECTIVE--The study was designed to examine the effects of age on sleep and the circadian rhythms during consecutive night shifts. METHODS--Two groups of letter sorters (19-29 (n = 7) and 53-59 (n = 7) years of age were studied in a sleep laboratory under closely controlled conditions. After two baseline days, circadian adjustment to three night shifts was monitored by continuous measurement of rectal temperature, salivary melatonin, and sleep-wakefulness during the night shifts. RESULTS--Age was significantly related to the adjustment to night work of rectal temperature minimum and of self rated sleepiness. Young subjects delayed their temperature phase and decreased sleepiness more than the older subjects. Age was also significantly related to an increase of alertness and to the feeling of being refreshed after the day sleep. Although there were basic differences in sleep duration and structure between the age groups, the latter did not change across the night shifts. CONCLUSION--Aging decreases the ability to recover after several, but not after the first night shift.
ISSN:1351-0711
1470-7926
DOI:10.1136/oem.51.8.568