Mood, Alertness, and Performance in Response to Sleep Deprivation and Recovery Sleep in Experienced Shiftworkers Versus Non-Shiftworkers

Previous studies have shown increased sleepiness and mood changes in shiftworkers, which may be due to sleep deprivation or circadian disruption. Few studies, however, have compared responses of experienced shiftworkers and non-shiftworkers to sleep deprivation in an identical laboratory setting. The aim of this laboratory study, therefore, was to compare long-term shiftworkers and non-shiftworkers and to investigate the effects of one night of total sleep deprivation (30.5 h of continuous wakefulness) and recovery sleep on psychomotor vigilance, self-rated alertness, and mood. Eleven experienced male shiftworkers (shiftwork ≥5 yrs) were matched with 14 non-shiftworkers for age (mean ± SD: 35.7 ± 7.2 and 32.5 ± 6.2 yrs, respectively) and body mass index (BMI) (28.7 ± 3.8 and 26.6 ± 3.4 kg/m2, respectively). After keeping a 7-d self-selected sleep/wake cycle (7.5/8 h nocturnal sleep), both groups entered a laboratory session consisting of a night of adaptation sleep and a baseline sleep (each 7.5/8 h), a s...