School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Cooperative Research Centre for Alertness, Safety and Productivity, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
J Sleep Res. 2021 Oct;30(5):e13312. doi: 10.1111/jsr.13312. Epub 2021 Mar 18.
We aimed to investigate the impact of the Wake Maintenance Zone (WMZ) on measures of drowsiness, attention, and subjective performance under rested and sleep deprived conditions. We studied 23 healthy young adults (18 males; mean age = 25.41 ± 5.73 years) during 40 hr of total sleep deprivation under constant routine conditions. Participants completed assessments of physiological drowsiness (EEG-scored slow eye movements and microsleeps), sustained attention (PVT), and subjective task demands every two hours, and four-hourly ocular motor assessment of inhibitory control (inhibition of reflexive saccades on an anti-saccade task). Tests were analyzed relative to dim light melatonin onset (DLMO); the WMZ was defined as the 3 hr prior to DLMO, and the preceding 3 hr window was deemed the pre-WMZ. The WMZ did not mitigate the adverse impact of 37 hr sleep deprivation on drowsiness, sustained attention, response inhibition, and self-rated concentration and difficulty, relative to rested WMZ performance (13 hr of wakefulness). Compared to the pre-WMZ, though, the WMZ improved measures of sustained attention, and subjective concentration and task difficulty, during sleep deprivation. Cumulatively, these results expand on previous work by characterizing the beneficial effects of the WMZ on operationally-relevant indices of drowsiness, inhibitory attention control, and self-rated concentration and task difficulty relative to the pre-WMZ during sleep deprivation. These results may inform scheduling safety-critical tasks at more optimal circadian times to improve workplace performance and safety.
我们旨在研究清醒维持区（WMZ）对休息和睡眠剥夺条件下的困倦、注意力和主观表现测量的影响。我们在恒常作息条件下对 23 名健康的年轻成年人（18 名男性；平均年龄=25.41±5.73 岁）进行了 40 小时的完全睡眠剥夺研究。参与者每两小时完成一次生理困倦（脑电图评分的慢眼动和微睡眠）、持续注意力（PVT）和主观任务需求评估，以及每四小时进行一次抑制性控制的眼动评估（在反扫视任务中抑制反射扫视）。测试相对于褪黑素分泌初始时间（DLMO）进行分析；WMZ 定义为 DLMO 前 3 小时，之前的 3 小时窗口被视为 WMZ 前窗。WMZ 并没有减轻大约 37 小时睡眠剥夺对困倦、持续注意力、反应抑制以及自我报告的注意力和难度的负面影响，与休息时的 WMZ 表现（约 13 小时清醒）相比。然而，与 WMZ 前窗相比，WMZ 在睡眠剥夺期间改善了持续注意力和主观注意力集中和任务难度的测量。总的来说，这些结果通过描述 WMZ 在睡眠剥夺期间相对于 WMZ 前窗对困倦、抑制性注意力控制以及自我报告的注意力和任务难度的操作性相关指标的有益影响，扩展了之前的工作。这些结果可能为在更优化的生物钟时间安排安全关键任务提供信息，以提高工作场所的绩效和安全性。
