The function of melatonin, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland primarily at night, has not been definitively established in humans. To determine if pharmacologic doses of melatonin had any behavioral effects it was administered acutely to 14 healthy men. Their mood, performance, memory and visual sensitivity were assessed. Plasma melatonin concentration was assayed as well. Melatonin signifi...

There is a broad spectrum of sleep disturbances observed in Parkinson's disease (PD). A variety of scales have been applied to the evaluation of PD sleep and wakefulness, but only a small number have been assessed specifically for clinimetric properties in the PD population. The movement disorder society has commissioned this task force to examine these scales and to assess their use in PD. A s...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To determine the degree to which balance is impaired by fatigue in postcall medical residents and to assess the validity of posturography in quantifying that impairment. STUDY DESIGN Prospective study. METHODS Medical residents underwent the following tests before and immediately after overnight call: 1) computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) using the Equitest force...

OBJECTIVE Some central hypersomnolence syndromes are associated with a positive allosteric modulator of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-A receptors in cerebrospinal fluid. Negative allosteric modulators of GABA-A receptors, including clarithromycin, have been reported to reduce sleepiness in these patients. We sought to systematically assess the effects of clarithromycin on objective vigilance and s...

One workweek of mild sleep restriction adversely impacts sleepiness, performance, and proinflammatory cytokines. Many individuals try to overcome these adverse effects by extending their sleep on weekends. To assess whether extended recovery sleep reverses the effects of mild sleep restriction on sleepiness/alertness, inflammation, and stress hormones, 30 healthy young men and women (mean age ±...

PURPOSE Accurate data about sleepiness in professional drivers at the wheel are rare because it is difficult to perform objective and reliable sleepiness tests in the field. In this pilot study, we investigate the practicability, robustness and viability of the pupillographic sleepiness test (PST, F2D by Amtech GmbH, Germany) during routine police controls. PST analyses and quantifies the so-ca...

Methods. In a double-blinded, cross-over trial 30 residents in anaesthesia were randomized to receive or not to receive a 30-min break between the assessment times of 07:30 and 14:00. in a normal working day. After at least 28 days the test was repeated with each resident in the opposite group. Primary outcome measure was the Test for Attentional Performance with the subtest of working memory a...

A plethora of medical consequences have been associated with the syndrome of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). These are global, affecting nearly every body function, and have been related to two key pathophysiological findings in sleep apnoea: repetitive falls in oxyhaemoglobin saturation during sleep, and recurrent arousals from sleep which terminate apnoea episodes. Sufferers of OSA may experi...

This study aimed to assess subjective and objective sleep parameters in a homogeneous group of drug-resistant mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) patients through internationally validated clinical questionnaires, video-electroencephalographic (VEEG) and polysomnographic (PSG) studies. Fifty-six patients with definite diagnosis of MTLE who were candidates for epilepsy surgery underwent a detai...