The article reports briefly on some effects of shiftwork and the work environment on health and wellbeing of shiftworkers. Studies of Brazilian shiftworkers (healthcare workers, petrochemical workers, and truck drivers) are described. A similar methodology was used to evaluate sleep and alertness in all these studies. The evaluation of sleep duration and quality and alertness showed similar res...

In this study, the effects of bright light (BL) on the rhythms in body temperature, plasma melatonin, plasma cortisol and subjective alertness, in 34 shift work nurses at a university hospital were assessed. They were exposed to very BL (4,500 lx) during 2 breaks (21:15-22:00 and 3:15-4:00) or dim light (300 lx). The subjects were studied under 24 h of realistic conditions during which their pl...

Driving Simulators reproduce situations that require tracking and visual searching, the main features of real driving. This study measured the reliability of a monotonous driving scenario to detect the circadian variations of alertness in healthy subjects. Five men and five women underwent a monotonous 30 min driving simulation task every 2 h. Before each driving task subjects completed the Sta...

In the support of individuals with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), assessing the level of alertness is a recurring issue for parents and other direct support persons. Although observations show clear advantages above and beyond other assessment methods, there are problems related to this method as well. Subjectivity of interpretation and low reliability results have been...

Although attention functions are often impaired after stroke, traumatic brain injury or inflammatory diseases, little is known about the time course and the long-term efficacy of training-induced improvement. The present single case study evaluates the time course and longitudinal stability of attention improvement after alertness training by repeatedly testing the subject between individual tr...

This study was initiated to evaluate the long-term safety, tolerability and effect on seizure control of lamotrigine (Lamictal) in paediatric patients with epilepsy. A total of 155 children (aged 2-19 years) with treatment-resistant epilepsy received add-on therapy or monotherapy lamotrigine for up to four years. Patients had already experienced benefit from lamotrigine treatment in an open one...

According to the two-process model of sleep regulation, the timing and structure of sleep are determined by the interaction of a homeostatic and a circadian process. The original qualitative model was elaborated to quantitative versions that included the ultradian dynamics of sleep in relation to the non-REM-REM sleep cycle. The time course of EEG slow-wave activity, the major marker of non-REM...

As healthcare organizations rely more heavily on IT, there is a growing need to understand innovative IT use in these organizations. First, this research introduces the concept of ehealth absorptive capacity which consists of e-health entrepreneurial alertness, assimilation and exploitation, based on Cohen and Levinthal (1990)’s absorptive capacity theory. We then address the theoretical neglec...

The growing number of fatigue related accidents in recent years has become a serious concern. Accidents caused by fatigue, or more precisely impaired alertness, in transportation and in mining operations involving heavy equipment can lead to substantial damage and loss of life. Preventing such fatigue related accidents is universally desirable, but requires techniques for continuously estimatin...

Exposure to light at night increases alertness, but light at night (especially short-wavelength light) also disrupts nocturnal physiology. Such disruption is thought to underlie medical problems for which shiftworkers have increased risk. In 33 male subjects we investigated whether short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light (<530 nm filtered out) at night preserves dim light melatoni...