Sleep deprivation and a non–24-h working schedule lead to extensive alterations in physiology and behavior

Most organisms on Earth possess circadian rhythms in their physiology and behaviors that allow them to resonate with the cycling environment over a 24-h period. However, in human society, a substantial quantity of jobs requires non–24-h working and rest or shift schedules, which causes more or less misalignment in circadian rhythms and disorders as a consequence. In this work, we conducted a sleep deprivation (SD) and non–24-h working and rest schedule (8 h on and 4 h off) experiment over 10 d in total and measured the changes in a series of physiologic and cognitive parameters. The results show that although the subjects could sleep during the schedule, their sleepiness increased significantly. Actigraphy data suggest that a 12-h schedule might result in chronic SD. Along with the increased sleepiness revealed by the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale questionnaire, the neurobehavioral psychomotor vigilance test data reveal that, compared with the control period, the reaction time of the subjects was significan...