Search

This study explores chronotype-dependent tolerance to the demands of working morning, evening, and night shifts in terms of social jet lag, sleep duration, and sleep disturbance. A total of 238 shift-workers were chronotyped with the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire for shift-workers (MCTQShift), which collects information about shift-dependent sleep duration and sleep timing. Additionally, 94 shift-workers also completed those items of the Sleep Questionnaire from the Standard Shift-Work Index (SSI) that assess sleep disturbances. Although all participants worked morning, evening, and night shifts, subsamples differed in rotation direction and speed. Sleep duration, social jet lag, and sleep disturbance were all significantly modulated by the interaction of chronotype and shift (mixed-model ANOVAs). Earlier chronotypes showed shortened sleep duration during night shifts, high social jet lag, as well as higher levels of sleep disturbance. A similar pattern was observed for later chronotypes during early shifts. Age itself only influenced sleep duration and quality per se, without showing interactions with shifts. We found that workers slept longer in fast, rotating shift schedules. Since chronotype changes with age, investigations on sleep behavior and circadian misalignment in shift-workers have to consider chronotype to fully understand interindividual and intraindividual variability, especially in view of the current demographic changes. Given the impact of sleep on health, our results stress the importance of chronotype both in understanding the effects of shift-work on sleep and in devising solutions to reduce shift-work–related health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, studies investigating the consequences of shiftwork have predominantly focused on external (local) time. Here, we report the daily variation in cognitive performance in rotating shiftworkers under real-life conditions using the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) and show that this function depends both on external and internal (biological) time. In addition to this high sensitivity of PVT performance to time-of-day, it has also been extensively applied in sleep deprivation protocols. We, therefore, also investigated the impact of shift-specific sleep duration and time awake on performance. In two separate field studies, 44 young workers (17 females, 27 males; age range 20-36 yrs) performed a PVT test every 2 h during each shift. We assessed chronotype by the MCTQShift (Munich ChronoType Questionnaire for shiftworkers). Daily sleep logs over the 4-wk study period allowed for the extraction of shift-specific sleep duration and time awake in a given shift, as well as average sleep duration ('sleep need'). Median reaction times (RTs) significantly varied across shifts, depending on both Local Time and Internal Time. Variability of reaction times around the 24 h mean (≈ ±5%) was best explained by a regression model comprising both factors, Local Time and Internal Time ( p  <  .001). Short (15th percentile; RT15%) and long (85th percentile; RT85%) reaction times were differentially affected by Internal Time and Local Time. During night shifts, only median RT and RT85% were impaired by the duration of time workers had been awake ( p < .01, consistent with the highest sleep pressure), but not RT15%. Proportion of sleep before a test day (relative to sleep need) significantly affected median RT and RT85% during morning shifts ( p < .01). RT15% was worst in the beginning of the morning shift, but improved to levels above average with increasing time awake ( p < .05), whereas RT85% became worse ( p < .05). Hierarchical mixed models confirmed the importance of chronotype and sleep duration on cognitive performance in shiftworkers, whereas the effect of time awake requires further research. Our finding that both Local Time and Internal Time, in conjunction with shift-specific sleep behavior, strongly influence performance extends predictions derived from laboratory studies. (Author correspondence: ) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Humans show large inter-individual differences in organising their behaviour within the 24-h day—this is most obvious in their preferred timing of sleep and wakefulness. Sleep and wake times show a near-Gaussian distribution in a given population, with extreme early types waking up when extreme late types fall asleep. This distribution is predominantly based on differences in an individuals’ circadian clock. The relationship between the circadian system and different “chronotypes” is formally and genetically well established in experimental studies in organisms ranging from unicells to mammals. To investigate the epidemiology of the human circadian clock, we developed a simple questionnaire (Munich ChronoType Questionnaire, MCTQ) to assess chronotype. So far, more than 55,000 people have completed the MCTQ, which has been validated with respect to the Horne–Østberg morningness–eveningness questionnaire (MEQ), objective measures of activity and rest (sleep-logs and actimetry), and physiological parameters. As a result of this large survey, we established an algorithm which optimises chronotype assessment by incorporating the information on timing of sleep and wakefulness for both work and free days. The timing and duration of sleep are generally independent. However, when the two are analysed separately for work and free days, sleep duration strongly depends on chronotype. In addition, chronotype is both age- and sex-dependent. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]