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Due to the unpredictable nature of working time arrangements, on-call workers experience regular disruption to sleep, particularly if woken by calls. Sleep disruption can impact long term physical and mental health, next day performance, and importantly, performance immediately after waking. To reduce the impact of performance impairments upon waking (i.e., reducing sleep inertia), research has investigated strategies to promote alertness (e.g., bright light, caffeine, and exercise). This review puts forth on-call workers who are likely to return to sleep after a call, it is also important to consider the impact of these sleep inertia countermeasures on subsequent sleep. Future research should build on the preliminary evidence base for sleep inertia countermeasures by examining the impact on subsequent sleep. This research is key for both supporting alertness and performance during a call ("switching on") and for allowing the on-call worker to return to sleep after a call ("switching off"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of the present study were to (1) quantify sleep behaviours of soccer referees and (2) compare sleep behaviours between nights before training, before matches, and after matches. Fourteen professional soccer referees from the A-League (mean±SD; age 34 ± 4 years; sex: 11 males, 3 females) participated in this observational study. Referees' sleep behaviours were examined using sleep diaries and wrist activity monitors for 31 consecutive nights during the 2018–2019 A-League season. Separate linear mixed models were conducted to assess differences in sleep behaviours between nights before training, before matches, and after matches. On average, referees did not obtain recommended sleep durations across the in-season (mean±SD sleep duration: 6.4 h ± 0.7 h). Referees went to bed later, spent less time in bed, and slept significantly less post-matches compared to pre-training and pre-match nights (p< 0.05). Referees were particularly susceptible to inadequate sleep on nights following training and matches. The findings related to poor sleep behaviours highlight the importance of implementing monitoring systems to understand the sleep behaviours of referees, with further research encouraged to ascertain the efficacy of various sleep hygiene practices to optimise sleep in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When on‐call workers wake during the night to perform work duties, they may experience reduced alertness and impaired performance as a result of sleep inertia. After performing their duties, on‐call workers may have the opportunity to return to sleep. Thus, it is important that sleep inertia countermeasures do not affect subsequent sleep. Exercise may be a suitable countermeasure; however, the impact on subsequent sleep is untested. Healthy participants (n = 15) completed three conditions in a counterbalanced order: sedentary, low‐intensity exercise or high‐intensity exercise, performed for 2 min upon awakening. Sleep was recorded 2 hr later using polysomnography, the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale was administered to measure subjective sleepiness, and core body temperature was measured continuously. Results indicate there was no effect of condition on most sleep variables; however, three variables had small differences, with longer total sleep time (p =.006), higher sleep efficiency (p =.006) and shorter N3 latency (p <.001) in the low‐intensity exercise condition. There was no difference in subjective sleepiness (p =.124) or core body temperature (p =.216) 90 min after the exercise intervention. These results indicate that using a short burst of exercise to counteract sleep inertia when woken during the night may be a suitable countermeasure for on‐call workers who not only need to be alert upon waking but also need quality sleep when returning to bed. Future research could include participants of other ages and health statuses to investigate whether the results are generalizable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: On-call work is becoming increasingly common in response to service demands. This study had two aims; 1) describe the demographic profile of on-call workers in Australia, and 2) establish the impacts of on-call work on workers' sleep. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire completed by Australian on-call workers (n = 228) from various professions. The questionnaire included items on i) demographic and work characteristics, ii) rumination about on-call factors, iii) sleep quantity and quality. Analyses were conducted using mixed effects ordinal regression and multivariable logistic regression. Results: Workers slept <7 hours per night when on-call (80%), and reported sleep was impacted on-call even when no-calls were received (56%). On-call workers rated interruptions to family/leisure time (70%), missing a call (69%), preplanning in case of a call (69%), and not able to make plans (67%) as the main factors they ruminated about. Female on-call workers were more likely to think about the likelihood of being called, report frequent thoughts about what they would need to do if called, and think about interruptions to family/leisure time as a result of a call. Younger workers were more likely to think about the likelihood of being called compared to older adults, however middle-aged workers were less likely to plan for a call compared to younger workers. Conclusions: This study is the first to describe Australia's on-call population, including factors that specifically impact sleep. Future studies should implement tailored education and support strategies to address the unique challenges facing on-call workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sports officials are essential in the adjudication of rules during competitions, research into officiating populations is preliminary. This review explores existing research on the effects of sleep loss on decision-making in athlete populations, to gain relevant insight into sports officials and the growing decision- making demands of their role. Specifically, cognitive factors that influence decision-making are identified, and the potential relationship between sleep/wake behaviours and decision-making in sports officials were examined. Particular focus was granted to sleep, specifically sleep restriction in athlete populations, and the hypothesized relationship between sleep/wake behaviours and decision-making in sports officials. Impaired sleep duration and quality has been shown to impair cognitive performance. In the context of sport, impairments to sleep can negatively impact motivation, physical strength, reaction time, and decision-making, all of which are imperative to the role of the sports official. Despite numerous studies demonstrating that sleep loss reduces cognitive performance in athletes, this review revealed that similar research in sports officials has surprisingly yet to be conducted. Since sports officials require a high level of cognitive and physical skills to make correct decisions, an inquiry into the influence of sleep on cognitive performance may encourage research that facilitates improved performance training methods for decision-making in officials. Such findings are important to maintain the standard of officiating and allow for the development of guidelines and strategies to manage sleep and optimize decision-making across various sporting codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep inertia is the transitional state marked by impaired cognitive performance and reduced vigilance upon waking. Exercising before bed may increase the amount of slow‐wave sleep within the sleep period, which has previously been associated with increased sleep inertia. Healthy males (n = 12) spent 3 nights in a sleep laboratory (1‐night washout period between each night) and completed one of the three conditions on each visit – no exercise, aerobic exercise (30 min cycling at 75% heart rate), and resistance exercise (six resistance exercises, three sets of 10 repetitions). The exercise conditions were completed 90 min prior to bed. Sleep was measured using polysomnography. Upon waking, participants completed five test batteries every 15 min, including the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale, a Psychomotor Vigilance Task, and the Spatial Configuration Task. Two separate linear mixed‐effects models were used to assess: (a) the impact of condition; and (b) the amount of slow‐wave sleep, on sleep inertia. There were no significant differences in sleep inertia between conditions, likely as a result of the similar sleep amount, sleep structure and time of awakening between conditions. The amount of slow‐wave sleep impacted fastest 10% reciprocal reaction time on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task only, whereby more slow‐wave sleep improved performance; however, the magnitude of this relationship was small. Results from this study suggest that exercise performed 90 min before bed does not negatively impact on sleep inertia. Future studies should investigate the impact of exercise intensity, duration and timing on sleep and subsequent sleep inertia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used a bibliometric analysis through the Scopus database to examine papers that combined physical activity and sleep, published between 1979 and 2018. Bibliometric indicators of productivity included publication volume and citation distribution, top 10 authors, average authors per paper, single- and multicountry collaboration, collaborative index, top 10 countries, leading journals, highly cited papers and network visualization for coauthorship, international collaboration, and co-occurrence of author keywords. The initial search identified 1,509 papers, of which 607 passed through comprehensive screening and were included in the final analysis. Most of the papers were research articles (90.8%) and published in English (90.8%). Most papers (81.4%) were published within the past decade, 2009–2018. The mean number of papers published per year was 15.2, the mean number of citations per paper was 257.3, and the mean number of authors per paper was 5.5. International collaboration was evident for 21.6% of the papers, and 95.6% of papers were multiauthored. The most prolific publishing institutions and authors were from the United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, and Brazil. Keyword analysis suggested that almost all age groups and study designs were covered, but most papers focus on noncommunicable diseases. Although there has been a rise in scientific production on combined physical activity and sleep research in recent years, future work in this area should include researchers from developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]