• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.12-17
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• 1998

Circadian rhythms in subjective alertness, mood, and performance can be classified as psychological rhythm, compared with physiological rhythm such as body temperature and hormonal change. While in normal condition entrained by 24hr zeitgeber, subjective alertness would reach its maximum value around midday, subjective alertness would parallel body temperature rhythm with its peak at evening in non-entrained, free-running state. With desynchronization technique, subjective alertness rhythm is thought to be controlled by both temperature and sleep-wake rhythm oscillator. Circadian performance rhythms depend on the kind of task tested. It shows parallelism with body temperature rhythm when subjects are tested with simple, repetitive task. But when tested with tasks requiring complex verbal reasoning or immediate memory, subjects would perform them best at early morning, with performance decreasing as time of day advances. The desynchronization technique shows that circadian performance rhythm of simple, repetitive task is dependent on temperature oscillator but circadian performance rhythm of complex verbal reasoning is influenced by both temperature and sleep-wake rhythm oscillator or another independent oscillator. It would be worthwhile to compare psychological rhythm with hormonal change such as cortisol and melatonin. And more simple and time-saving method than desynchronization technique may facilitate the study of the mechanism underlying psychological rhythm.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.51-60
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• 2014

A 'circadian rhythm' is a self-sustained biological rhythm (cycle) that repeats itself approximately every 24 hours. Circadian rhythms are generated by an internal clock, or pacemaker, and persist even in the absence of environmental time cues, collectively termed 'zeitgebers.' Although organisms generate circadian rhythms internally, they are entrained by environmental stimuli, particularly the light-dark cycle. Measurement of the endogenous melatonin rhythm provides relatively reliable surrogate way of assessing the timing of the internal circadian clock. Also, core body temperature and cortisol can be used as markers of circadian rhythms. The sleep-wake cycle, body temperature, and melatonin rhythm have a stable internal phase relationship in humans and other diurnal species. They play an important role in controlling daily behavioral rhythms including task performance, blood pressure, and synthesis and secretion of several hormones. In this review, we address not only the properties, methods of measurement, and markers of circadian rhythms, but also the physiological and psychological importance of human circadian rhythms.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.129-149
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• 1991

Circadian rhythm is entrained in the 24-hour time interval by periodic factors in the environment, known as zeitgeber. But most rotating work schedules are outside the range of the entrainment of the pacemaker timing the human circadian sleep - wake cycle. It has been postulated that physiological and emotional disturbances occur in most human functions when the circadian rhythm is disturbed. So application of circadian principles to the design of shift schedules can aid in maintaining the temporal integrity of the circadian system and thereby minimize for the shift worker any detrimental consequences of circadian disruption. This study was a quasi-experimental study to test the effect of shift intervals for the clinical nurse on the circadian rhythm. Twenty nurses newly employed in general units of two hospitals were selected as an experimental group and twelve college nursing students as a control group. Both groups were selected according to an established criteria using a purposive sampling technique. Ten subjects were assigned to a weekly shift group and another ten to a biweekly shift group engaged in a semi -continuous shift schedule(sunday off) with a backward direction, that is, morning -evening - night shift. The control group worked a morning shift for 42 days. Oral temperature rhythm, waking tim, sleep - wake cycle, fatigue, and mental performance were measured during the experimental period. The data collection period was from April 30, 1990 to June 10, 1990. MANOVA, paired t-test, ANOVA, and Student Newman Keuls method were used for statistical analysis. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Phase delay in the acrophase of temperature rhythm was shown according to the backward rotating shift. A complete adaptation to work on the night shift was achieved between the sixth and ninth day of the night shift. 2. There was no difference in either waking time or sleep- wake cycle according to the duration of the working day for every shift group. Significant difference was found in the waking time and the sleep -wake cycle for subjects on the morning, evening, and night shift in both of the shift groups(weekly shift group : λ＝0.121, p＜0.01, λ＝0.112, p＜0.01, biweekly shift group : λ＝0.116, p＜0.01, λ＝0.084, p＜0.01). 3. There was no difference in fatigue between the first working day and the last working day for the control group and for the biweekly shift group. In the weekly shift group, physical fatigue was significantly different for the first day and the sixth day of the night shift(t＝-2.28, p＜0.05). Physical fatigue and total fatigue on the first day of the night shift showed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝5.79, p＜0.01, F＝4.56, p＜0.05). There was a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05), Physical fatigue, neurosensory fatigue and total fatigue on the last day of the night shift showed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝12.65, p＜0.01, F＝7.77, p＜0.01, F＝9.68, p＜0.01). There was a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05). 4. No difference in mental performance was seen between the first day and the last day of work in each case. An arithmatic test on the first day of the night shift revealed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝3.79, p＜0.05). There was a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05) . The digital symbol substitution test and the arithmetic test on the last day of the night shift showed a significant difference among the control group, the weekly shift group, and the biweekly shift group(F＝3.68, p＜0.05, F＝5.55, p＜0.01), and both showed a significant difference between the shift groups and the control group(p＜0.05). Accordingly, this study showed that during night duty, the waking time, sleep- wake cycle, and fatigue increased and mental performance decreased compared with morning and evening duty. It was also found that the weekly shift group had a higher fatigue score on the sixth day of night duty as compared to the -first day, but the waking time, sleep- wake cycle, and mental performance revealed no difference for the duration of the night duty or between shift groups, and complete adaptation of temperature rhythm was achieved between the sixth and ninth day of night duty. It is possible to conclude from these results that for intermediate circadian type in a healthy young woman, a biweekly shift system is more compatible with the circadian timing system than weekly shift system.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.77-97
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• 1994

The circadian system represents a temporal order which is mediated by the mutual coupling of oscillators and by the synchronizing effects of zeitgebers. It is known that well-being of man depends partly on the maintenance of this order, and that repeated or long lasting disturbances to it such as shift work will Cause harmful effects. This study was a quasi-experimental study to test the effect of shift directions for the clinical nurses on the circadian rhythm. Fourteen nurses working at the general units of Y hospital were selected according to the established criteria. Fourteen subjects were assigned to a weekly shift but the directions of shift work were phase delay first and then phase advance or vice versa. Oral temperature, total sleeping time, frequency of sleep-wake cycle, fatigue, mental performance, and physical symptom were measured during these days except holidays. The data collection period was from April 26, 1993 to July 3, 1993. MANOVA and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used for statistical analysis. The results are summarized as follows. 1. Having worked on evening and night shifts in either phase delay or phase advance schedules, temperature rhythms of shift workers were gradually adapted to the new sleep-wake cycles. A complete adaptation to work on the night shift was achieved the sixth day of the night shift in the phase delay schedule compared to the partial adaptation to the work on the night shift in the phase advance schedule. Accordingly, by putting evening shift between day and night shifts, it will be possible for circadian rhythm to adapt easily to the night shift. 2. There were differences in the total sleeping time, frequency of steep-wake cycle, fatigue, and physical symptom except for mental performance between night shift and day, evening shift. This indicates further that shift workers working on the night shift have a hard time adapting to the shift work compared to the other shifts. 3. Evaluating all the acrophases of temperature rhythm either in phase delay or phase ad-vance schedules, it was shown that night to evening shift in the phase ad-vance schedule revealed the smallest phase move. Also phase advance schedule showed poorer adaptation to shift work than phase delay schedule in connection with total sleeping time, frequency of sleep-wake cycle, fatigue, mental performance, and physical symptom. It is suggested, taken together, these findings reflect that phase delay schedule facilitated the degree of adjustment to the shift work compared to the phase advance schedule.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.374-378
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• 2013

Purpose: Human body have biological rhythmic pattern in a day, which is affected by internal and external environmental factors. We investigated whether respiratory function was fluctuated according to the influence of time-of-day (around at 9 am, 1 pm, and 6 pm) in health subjects, using pulmonary function test (PFT). Methods: Eighteen healthy volunteers (8 men, mean ages; $22.4{\pm}1.6$, mean heights; $166.61{\pm}9.60$, mean weight; $59.3{\pm}10.3$) were recruited. Pulmonary function test (PFT) was measured at three time points in day, around 9 am, 1 pm, and 6 pm in calm research room with condition of under 55dB noise level, using a spirometer (Vmax 229, SensorMecis, USA). Forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1), FVC/FEV1, and peak expiratory flow (PEF) were acquired. Results: In comparison of raw value of PFT among three time points, subjects showed generally better respiratory function at 9 am, than at other points, although no significance was found. In comparison of distribution of ranking for respiratory function in each individual, only PEF showed significant difference. In general, distributional ratio of subjects who showed best performance of respiratory function in a day was high. Conclusion: These findings showed that circadian rhythm by diurnal pattern was not detected on respiratory function throughout all day. But, best performance on respiratory function was observed mostly in the morning, although statistical significance did not exist.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.58-66
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• 2007

This study is evaluation of shift-workers' sleep and social life related to hospital workers' performance and health. We researched shiftworkers' sleep, sleeping quality and social relations using a questionnaire method to shiftworkplace scattered Daejeon and Chungnam province. The results of shiftworkers' sleep are differ from habitual sleep. Social participations of shiftworkerse are interfered partially because of shiftwork. In preference, shiftworker preferred health to others because of physical load of shiftworks. Through result of this study about sleep and social life style, we hope to derive reduction methods of shift work fatigue and education for improvement of employers, for example an physiological and psychological accordance method, an health problem solving method and an social accordance method, etc.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 1998

Since the aircraft has a property of moving in the three-dimensional space, it may cause personally and financially critical damage in the case of an accident. Among the causes of aircraft accident, human factor has occupied about 70% of all accidents. Specially, fatigue among human's problems has been studied earlier than any other factor. Fatigue has been the cause of 75% of accidents that are related to human factor. So many studies have been conducted. But the direction of these studies mainly attach importance to the sleep loss and circadian rhythm. Limitation for flight time of ICAO is 8 hours per day, civil airlines in domestic line also adopt the limitation. But this rule is not based on human's performance but compromise between labor and management. The long-haul flight brings about a mental block to pilot. This mental block decreases performance of pilot and loses a lot of important information. So this may cause many accidents. This paper is to offer optimal flight time according to the amount of fatigue due to increasing flight time. The optimal flight time is searched through the field experiment. The experiment has adopted two methods. One is to examine pilot's objective fatigue accumulation rate through the critical fusion frequency, and another is to investigate pilot's subjective fatigue feeling through the fatigue subjective symptoms investigation table.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.1053-1064
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• 2023

Melatonin, which is produced from tryptophan, exerts various biological functions, including the regulation of circadian rhythm, sedative agents, and antioxidant ability. Therefore, we conducted two experiments with early-weaned rats and pigs to investigate the antioxidant and sedative effects of melatonin. In the rat experiment, a total of 42 rats (21 days old) were used, and the antioxidant capacity was determined. Next, we used 120 early-weaned piglets (21 days old) to conduct a 5-week experiment to evaluate the reductive effect of melatonin on energy-wasting movement, including roaming and fight states. Dietary melatonin supplementation significantly improved growth in both rats and pigs compared to the control groups. Additionally, rats fed a melatonin-supplemented diet showed advanced antioxidant capacity with a decrease in hepatic malondialdehyde concentration compared to rats fed a basal diet. Moreover, dietary melatonin ingestion increased resting and feeding behaviors and reduced roaming and fight behaviors during Days 8-21 compared to the control diet group. Collectively, early weaned animals given dietary melatonin supplementation showed improved growth through upregulation of hepatic antioxidant capacity and minimization of energy-wasting behavior, including roaming and fight states, after pigs' social hierarchy establishment.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.13-22
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• 1998

Aircraft and the three-dimensional environment in which they operate are not user-friendly for human beings. As a result, maintaining the proficiencies necessary to safely and efficiently fly an airplane are difficult, and costly. The physiological and emotional status of the human element remains crucial in maintaining safe performance by all crew members. In the study of Hagiwara et al.(1993). they called the physiological and emotional status of the human element into the human alertness or physiological activity and stress, fatigue, circadian rhythm, alcohol. smoking, and self-medication are known the major factors that deteriorate the human alertness. Accordingly. this paper deals with the quantitative and objective performance test based on tracking error and reaction time by means of the new computer test program into which the perception-motion system of human beings is applied. Throughout this experiment using performance test, the results suggest that performance capability in state of sleep deprivation 2 hours and alcoholic 0.05~0.06% in blood were more impaired than one in a normal state, and they further showed statistically significant differences between them, which were influenced by impairment factors of body regulation and pilot's grade. We also obtained the prediction value and the 95% confidence interval of tracking error and reaction time at the normal state for the purpose of distinguishing performance capability between the normal state and the abnormal state. And it is expected that the evaluation of human alertness using performance test will be applied to the quantitative assessment of an each pilot's realistic consciousness/attention, and will lead a flight commander to the accurate decision of mission approval prior to a flight.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.129-137
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• 2001

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of 38-hour sleep deprivation on fine motor performance. The Motor Performance Series (MPS) in the Vienna Test System (computerized neurocognitive function tests) was used in this study. Methods: Twenty four subjects participated in this study. Subjects had no past history of psychiatric disorders and physical illness. Subjects had normal sleep-waking cycle without current sleep disturbances and were all right-handed (Annett's Hand Preference Questionnaire: above +9 points). To minimize the learning effects, familiarization with the Vienna Test System was performed one day before the study. Subjects were to get up at 6:00 in the morning after getting enough sleep according to his or her usual sleep-wake cycle. After awakening, subjects remained awake for 38 hours under continuous surveillance. During two consecutive study days, the subjects tested MPS at 7 AM and 7 PM each day, which means the MPS was done four times in total. During the experiment, anything that could affect the subjects' sleep such as coffee, tea, alcohol, a nap, tiring sports, and all medications were prohibited. Results: In MPS, the fine motor functions of both hands decreased after 38 hours of sleep deprivation. The decrement in motor performance was prominent in the dominant right hand. In the right hand, the total number of tapping was reduced (p<.005), and the number of misses (p<.05) and the length of misses (p<.05) of line tracking, the total length of inserting a short pin (p<.01), the total length of inserting a long pin (p<.05), and the number of misses in aiming (p<.05) increased. Such performance decrement was distinct in the morning sessions. Conclusions: These results suggest that fine motor performance decrement during sleep deprivation is predominant in the right hand, which exerts maximal motor function. The finding of decrement in motor function in tapping during sleep deprivation also suggested that the time required for exhaustion of muscles is shortened during sleep deprivation. More deterioration of motor performance was shown in the morning, which could be explained as circadian rhythm effects.