Diurnal Variation in Mental Performance: A Study of Three-shift Workers

Bjerner, Bo; Holm, Å.; Swensson, A

doi:10.1136/oem.12.2.103

Cited by 71 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The body is considered to be under some stress until adaptation occurs. In the laboratory it has been shown that performance is linked positively to body temperature (Kleitman and Jackson, 1950;Colquhoun, Blake, and Edwards, 1968a), and at work telephonists took longer to answer calls (Browne, 1949), and gas plant operators made more errors in the early morning (Bjerner, Holm, and Swensson, 1955). However, in general, output is similar on the day shift and the night shift on rotating shifts (Ministry of Munitions, 1917;Wyatt and Marriott, 1953), although in the earlier study continuous night work was associated with low output.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Absence from work in relation to the length and distribution of shift hours.

Walker¹

1970

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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Walker, J., and de la Mare, Gwynneth (1971). Brit. J. industr. Med., 28, 36-44. Absence from work in relation to length and distribution of shift hours. A long period on night shift or even permanent night work has sometimes been suggested for those on continuous shift work to allow circadian rhythms to adapt. As the weekly hours of work have been reduced there is some evidence that a permanent night shift is practical, and about 12% of all shift workers are on this type of work. However, the case for permanent night shift must be established on grounds of both effectiveness and acceptability.The present studycompares the absence experience, including sickness absence, ofpermanent day workers and permanent night workers matched for age and job in three undertakings which contained a range of working conditions.The question of the relationship between absence from work and total hours worked including overtime has been reopened, and in comparing absence from work according to the type of shift the total hours worked must also be taken into account. The relationship between the average hours when a man was at work and the amount of absence was tested. The men in the three undertakings worked a wide range of voluntary overtime.The results showed that in two undertakings long-term absence, mainly sickness absence, was higher on the night shift than on the day shift; and, in the third, absence was about the same on the two shifts. As the work load was less in the two undertakings with a higher absence on the night shift it was suggested that selective factors were operating. These results may be contrasted to studies which have compared the absence of rotating shift workers and day workers.In all three undertakings there was a tendency for absence to be less among high overtime workers than among those who worked medium or small amounts of overtime, although the trends were not consistent. There was no evidence at all that high overtime and absence from work were positively associated.The implications of these results are discussed.During recent years there has been an increase in the tends to emerge is that absence rates are higher amount of shift working in industry and this has led among day workers than among shift workers to greater interest in the human problems associated (Wyatt and Marriott, 1953) and the result is conwith abnormal hours. One question which arises is firmed in sickness absence studies (Thiis-Evensen, whether shift work affects absence from work, in-1958;Aanonsen, 1964;Taylor, 1967Taylor, , 1968b. The cluding sickness absence. Reviews of previous research has, in general, been carried out on men research (Andlauer and Fourre, 1962;Menzel, 1962)

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confidence: 99%

Absence from work in relation to the length and distribution of shift hours.

Walker¹

1970

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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“…The first set was from a relatively simple and safe task, the reading of gas meters. Bjerner et al (1955) reported the hourto-hour distribution of more than 75,000 meter reading errors across the 24-h period. The second data set was from a relatively complex and risky task, automobile driving (Mitler 1989).…”

Section: Discusssionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…No evidence exists to support the presence of a circasemidian rhythm in the rhythmic cells of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the accepted internal timing source for the major circadian rhythms of the body. However, a number of published data sets have shown a daily twopeak error pattern in industrial and transportation environments (Bjerner et al 1955;Browne 1949;Folkard et al 2005;Harris 1977Harris , 1978Hildebrandt et al, 1974;Kogi & Ohta 1975;Langlois et al 1985;Lavie et al 1986;Mitler 1989;Prokop & Prokop 1955). The pattern was also obvious in many of the charts shown in the review by Rutenfranz and Colquhoun (1979), though they did not suggest a circasemidian rhythm as a mediator for the pattern.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Search of Circasemidian Rhythms

Miller¹

2006

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY)2 Approved for public release, distribution unlimited. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ABSTRACTThere is controversy over the existence of physiological or behavioral circasemidian (12-h period) rhythms. However, a number of reports have shown a circasemidian error pattern in industrial and transportation environments and a circasemidian pattern in body temperature. To help us quantify the effects of fatigue, we hypothesized that body temperature, subjective sleepiness, simple response time and working memory speed would oscillate with a period of 12 hours (the circasemidian frequency); and that the parameter values describing the circasemidian oscillations of the measures would differ across genders and age groups. Measurements were acquired from 37 male and female subjects at half-hourly intervals from 0700h to 1900h in constant conditions. Circasemidian cosine curves were fitted to the data of individual subjects by the least-squares method. A statistically-significant, 12-hour pattern was found for body temperature and for subjective sleepiness, but not for simple response time or working memory speed. No differences were found with respect to gender or age group. Body temperature peaked at 16:49h and sleepiness peaked at 17:40h. Considering the large numbers of field observations of a two-peak pattern in errors and accidents, the failure to detect a circasemidian rhythmicity in task performance was attributed to the nature of task, itself. Future investigations should attempt to replicate our findings, acquire 24 h/day body temperature data, combine circasemidian with circadian cosinor estimates, determine which laboratory tasks display a circasemidian rhythmicity, try to determine why only some tasks may display that rhythmicity, and consider models other than the cosine curve. SUBJECT PREFACELt Christina Cardenas managed both subject recruitment and data acquisition and reduction. Her assistance is gratefully acknowledged. The effort was funded under Air Force job order number 7757P905.iv SUMMARY There is controversy over the existence of physiological or behavioral circasemidian (12-h period) r...

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“…On the other hand, the early to mid afternoon period is also characterized by a decrease in performance and psychological functions usually referred to as the "postlunch dip" (5,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). This decrease appears to be independent of food intake (Blake, as cited in ref.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%