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Alertness
Published in Charles Theisler, Adjuvant Medical Care, 2023
A state of being readily attentive and responsive is called alertness. It is the ability to perceive quickly and act promptly and appropriately on that perception. Persistent lack of alertness is a symptom of a number of conditions such as narcolepsy, attention deficit disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, Addison’s disease, or sleep deprivation.
Medications That May Be Useful in the Management of Patients with Chronic Intractable Pain
Published in Michael S. Margoles, Richard Weiner, Chronic PAIN, 2019
Prescribe or dispense sparingly. Take early in the day (especially sustained-release dosage forms) to avoid nighttime insomnia. Do not increase dosage, except on physician’s advice. May impair ability to drive or perform other tasks that require alertness. Notify your physician if you have problems with nervousness, restlessness, insomnia, or dizziness.
Medication effects on sleep
Published in S.R. Pandi-Perumal, Meera Narasimhan, Milton Kramer, Sleep and Psychosomatic Medicine, 2017
Medications that are used in somnolent patients to induce alertness include the amphetamines (dextroamphetamine [Dexedrine], methylphenidate [Ritalin]) and pemoline (Cylert). The tendency of pemoline to cause acute hepatic failure has limited its usefulness. The amphetamines are considered to have high abuse potential and are Schedule II prescription drugs. Side effects of these drugs include personality changes, tremor, hypertension (Dexedrine and Ritalin), headaches, and gastrointestinal reflux.36
Impact of sleep-wake features on fatigue among female shift work nurses
Published in Annals of Medicine, 2023
Xin Zhang, Xuesong Dai, Jing Jiao, Shih-Yu Lee
Workplace stress has been recognized globally as a risk factor affecting the health and safety of workers [8,39]. In the current study, 20.4% of the study participants had abnormal cortisol levels before the day shift and 17.1% after the night shift, indicating they were either too alert to fall asleep after the night shift or not alert enough during the day shift to avoid errors. Longer shift duration (more than 8 h) was significantly associated with impaired morning cortisol levels [8]; therefore, the findings support the need to examine shift patterns and stress-coping strategies to promote nurses’ health and maintain workplace safety. Alertness is essential during work to minimize the risk of accidents and promote healthcare workers’ safety. Compared with nurses who only work day- or night-shifts [5], our study participants have longer reaction times, which suggests that rapid shift work may harm cognition and response and deserves further attention. Therefore, examining workplace stress’s associations with alertness was necessary. The reaction time may indicate the nurse’s ability to provide competent clinical practice. Nursing administrators should design the organizational interventions (e.g. CAR-friendly rotation schedules, individual shift work tolerance, objective measures of vigilance and sleepiness, and a low-risk environment) and personalized guidance for shift nurses to increase their capacity for doing time and task management, especially nurses on 12-hour shift [40].
Possible effects of uberization on the quality of sleep of professional drivers
Published in Chronobiology International, 2023
Vinnycius Nunes de Oliveira, Thalles Guilarducci Costa, Marilia Santos Andrade, Rodrigo Luiz Vancini, Katja Weiss, Beat Knechtle, Fernanda Veruska Narciso, João Paulo Pereira Rosa, Claudio Andre Barbosa de Lira
In addition, sleep deprivation due to long working hours could be enhanced by the post-lunch dip (Monk 2005). Most people feel a significant reduction in alertness and concentration between 2 and 4 pm, leading to poor judgment and increased human error, increasing the accident rate and reduced performance in the workplace (Williamson et al. 2011). To minimize this, some studies have shown that exposure to bright light in specific wavelengths (e.g., blue) can potentially improve alertness and performance (Cajochen et al. 2005; Lockley et al. 2006). When bright light (day phase or artificial) shines on retinal cells, the cells are stimulated and initiate the entire process of activating the waking neurotransmitters (e.g., glutamate, noradrenaline, orexin, etc.), the cortex and the suprachiasmatic nuclei, reducing the secretion of melatonin and maintaining the body on alert and vigilance (Golombek and Rosenstein 2010; Spitschan et al. 2017).
The effect of time of day and high intensity exercise on cognitive performances of elite adolescent karate athletes
Published in Chronobiology International, 2022
Syrine Khemila, Mohamed Romdhani, Salma Abedelmalek, Hamdi Chtourou, Mohamed Abdelkader Souissi, Emna BenTouati, Nizar Souissi
An improvement in cognitive performance (i.e., SRT, CRT and MRT) was observed following KST only in the morning. These findings are in line with the results of a recent review study who found that professional athletes’ cognitive function improved after exercise induced fatigue (Gus Almonroeder et al. 2018). In the current study, it could be suggested that Karate athletes are more resistant to physical stress in the morning after the effort compared to the afternoon. However, it is difficult to explain this result. A possible explanation is that alertness and wakefulness are low in the morning. Physical exercise could therefore increase these parameters by its action on hormones that stimulate wakefulness such as cortisol. More physiological variables, such as heart rate, lactate levels, and hormones (e.g., cortisol, adrenalin, and noradrenalin), must also be measured to validate the relationship between cognitive performance and the activation induced by physical exercise.