• Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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• v.34
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• pp.27.1-27.12
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• 2022

Background: Shift work that interferes with normal sleep patterns, is known to be a cause of sleep disturbance and has been studied through various occupational groups. However, it is not known which shift type is better for sleep health. Methods: This study included 568 firefighters. Sleep quality was evaluated using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Sleep quality was categorized into 2 groups; good quality (≤ 5 points) and poor quality (≥ 6 points). Demographic variables, depression, anxiety, type of shift, and job were collected by self-reported questionnaires. The χ² test, t-test, and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to evaluate the effect of shift type on the sleep quality of firefighters. Results: Three hundred thirty-seven firefighters (59.3%) have poor sleep quality. Compared to day workers, the odds ratios (ORs) of poor sleep quality were 2.169 (95% confidence interval: 1.137-4.134) in 6-day cycle, 2.161 (1.150-4.062) in 9-day cycle, 1.805 (1.087-2.997) in 21-day cycle, and 1.485 (0.718-3.069) in 3-day cycle. The ORs of poor sleep quality were 1.697(1.021-2.823) in fire suppression and 2.325 (1.213-4.455) in emergency medical service compared to administration. Conclusions: All shift work type except for the 3-day cycle was associated with poor sleep quality compared to day work.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2016

Since its development in the early 70s, actigraphy has been widely used in sleep research and clinical sleep medicine as an assessment tool of sleep and sleep-wake cycles. The validation and reliability of actigraphic measures have been reasonably examined in healthy normal individuals with good sleep patterns. Recent literature suggests that the use of actigraphy could be further extended to monitor insomnia and circadian sleep-wake disturbances, and detect sleep changes associated with drug treatments and non-pharmacologic interventions, although it is generally recommended to use complementary assessments such as sleep diaries and overnight polysomnography when possible. The development of actigraphy includes its improved hardware sensors for better detection of movements and advanced algorithms to score sleep and wake epochs. In this paper, we briefly review the quantitative analysis methods of actigraphy and its potential applications in sleep research.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.5-11
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• 2008

Sleep is an essential process maintaining the life cycle of the human. In parallel with physiological, cognitive, subjective, and behavioral changes that take place during the sleep, there are remarkable changes in the electroencephalogram (EEG) that reflect the underlying electro-physiological activity of the brain. However, analyzing EEG and relating the results to clinical observations is often very hard due to the complexity and a huge data amount. In this article, I introduce several linear and non-linear tools, developed to analyze a huge time series data in many scientific researches, and apply them to EEG to characterize various sleep states. In particular, the spectral analysis, detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), and synchrony analysis are administered to EEG recorded during nocturnal polysomnography (NPSG) processes and daytime multiple sleep latency tests (MSLT). I report that 1) sleep stages could be differentiated by the spectral analysis and the DFA ; 2) the gradual transition from Wake to Sleep during the sleep onset could be illustrated by the spectral analysis and the DFA ; 3) electrophysiological properties of narcolepsy could be characterized by the DFA ; 4) hypnic jerks (sleep starts) could be quantified by the synchrony analysis.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.307-312
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• 2007

This study was performed to evaluate sleep efficiencies and conditions for comfortable sleep based on the analysis of sleep efficiency and MST under four thermals conditions ($22^{\circ}C,\;24^{\circ}C,\;26^{\circ}C,\;30^{\circ}C$). Five female subjects who have similar life cycle and sleep patterns were participated for the sleep experiment. Their age was from 20 to 22 years old. They were healthy, and had regular sleep with consistent bed and wakeup time. It was checked whether they had a good sleep before the night of experiment. Experiments were performed in an environmental chamber using thermo-hygrostat. The physiological signal (EEG) for sleep stage were obtained from C3-A2 and C4-Al electrode sites. Sleep stages were classified, then SWS latency and SWS/TST were calculated for the evaluation for sleep efficiencies on thermal conditions. As results, mean skin temperature for comfort sleeping was $34.5{\sim}35.4^{\circ}C$. Considering sleep efficiency and mean skin temperature, indoor room temperature of upper limit was $28.1^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.535-540
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• 2006

This study was performed In evaluate sleep efficiencies and conditions for comfortable sleep based on the analysis of Physiological signals under variations in thermal conditions. Five female subjects who have similar life cycle and sleep patterns were participated for the sleep experiment. It was checked whether they had a good sleep before the night of experiment. EEGs were obtained from C3-A2 and C4-A1 electrode sites and EOGs were acquired from LOC (left outer canthus) and ROC (right outer canthus) for REM sleep detection. Sleep stages were classified, then TST (total sleep time), SWS (slow wave sleep) latency and SWS/TST were calculated for the evaluation of sleep efficiencies on thermal conditions. TST was defined as an amount of time from sleep stage 1 to wakeup. SWS latency was from light off time to sleep stage 3 and percentage of SWS over TST was calculated for the evaluation of sleep quality and comfort sleep under thermal conditions. As result, the condition which raise a room temperature provided comfortable sleep.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2006

This study was performed to evaluate sleep efficiencies and conditions for comfortable sleep based on the analysis of EEGs and MST under four thermals conditions. Five female subjects who have similar life cycle and sleep patterns were participated for the sleep experiment. Their age was from 20 to 22 years old. They were healthy, and had regular sleep with consistent bed and wakeup time. It was checked whether they had a good sleep before the night of experiment. Experiments were performed in an environmental chamber of $4.1\times4.9\times2.7m$ size. EEGs were obtained from C3-A2 and C4-Al electrode sites. Sleep stages were classified, then TST, SWS latency and SWS/TST were calculated for the evaluation for sleep efficiencies on thermal conditions. As results, it was concluded that indoor thermal environments of $24\~26^{\circ}C$ was the best for comfortable and deep sleep.

• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.75-84
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• 2010

The cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) is a periodic EEG activity in NREM sleep, characterized by sequences of transient electrocortical events that are distinct from background EEG activities. A CAP cycle consists of two periodic EEG features, phase A and subsequent phase B whose durations are 2-60 s. At least two consecutive CAP cycles are required to define a CAP sequence. The CAP phase A is a phasic EEG event, such as delta bursts, vertex sharp transients, K-complex sequences, polyphasic bursts, K-alpha, intermittent alpha, and arousals. Phase B is repetitive periods of background EEG activity. The absence of CAP more than 60 seconds or an isolated phase A is classified as non-CAP. Phase A activities can be classified into three subtypes (A1, A2, and A3), based on the amounts of high-voltage slow waves (EEG synchrony) and low-amplitude fast rhythms (EEG desynchrony). CAP rate, the percentage of CAP durations in NREM sleep is considered to be a physiologic marker of the NREM sleep instability. In insomnia, the frequent discrepancy between self-reports and polysomnographic findings could be attributed to subtle abnormalities in the sleep tracing, which are overlooked by the conventional scoring methods. The conventional scoring scheme has superiority in analysis of macrostructure of sleep but shows limited power in finding arousals and transient EEG events that are major component of microstructure of sleep. But, it has recently been found that a significant correlation exists between CAP rate and the subjective estimates of the sleep quality in insomniacs and sleep-improving treatments often reduce the amount of CAP. Thus, the extension of conventional sleep measures with the new CAP variables, which appear to be the more sensitive to sleep disturbance, may improve our knowledge on the diagnosis and management of insomnia.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.155-162
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• 2015

Purpose: The association between pain and sleep is described as a vicious cycle and psychological distress is well known as comorbid condition in the patients with pain and sleep problems. The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of self-reported sleep disturbance and its relationship to clinical and psychological profiles in temporomandibular disorder (TMD) patients. Methods: The sample consisted of 123 TMD patients (90 women and 33 men), with a mean age of $39.9{\pm}15.4years$. Self-report measures of sleep quality, pain and psychological profile were conducted via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Brief Pain Inventory and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revision at the initial visit. The primary diagnosis of TMD were categorized as TMD with internal derangement without pain, TMD with joint pain, TMD with muscle pain and TMD with joint-muscle combined pain. The chi-square test, independent t-test, oneway ANOVA and multiple linear regression analysis were used for statistics. Results: The patients was grouped as good sleepers (n=32, scores of 5 and lower) and poor sleepers (n=91, scores of 6 and higher) according to the recommended cutoff point of the global PSQI score (>5). TMD patients with pain showed poor sleep quality than TMD patients with internal derangement without pain. Poor sleepers had high pain interference and elevated psychological distress. Among them, pain interference and depression were significant predictors to sleep quality. Conclusions: The results suggest that sleep disturbance is a prevalent complaint in TMD patients, and sleep problems in TMD patients are associated with pain and psychological distress.

• Journal of Internet of Things and Convergence
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.35-41
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• 2024

Due to increasingly busy lifestyles, sleep time is gradually being reduced, leading to a growing interest in effective sleep methods. Traditional alarms that only ring at a set time can disrupt efficient sleep and increase fatigue. To solve this problem, a smart alarm system utilizing Raspberry Pi has been proposed. The proposed alarm not only rings at a preset time, like conventional alarms, but also helps by using an infrared sensor attached to the Raspberry Pi to detect the user's sleep onset time and calculate the optimal sleep duration, setting the alarm accordingly. Additionally, it allows for easy naps during the day by setting a fixed nap time. This Smart Alarm system was implemented using MIT App Inventor. The proposed Smart Alarm system is expected to contribute to more efficient sleep.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.182-189
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• 2004

Objectives : The objective of this study is to compare the circadian patterns of heart rate variability assessed by 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) recordings during day shift and night shift among the workers in the 5 days-concecutive-12-hour shift in an automobile factory in Korea. Methods : The study population consisted 300 workers, who were randomly selected among the 8700 total workers in one car factory. To analyse circadian variation, the 24-hour ECG recordings (Marquette) were measured during day shift (08:00-20:00 h) and night shift (20:00-08:00 h). Analysis was performed for all time and frequency domain measures of HRV. 233 workers completed taking 24-hour ECG recordings. Results : This study shows that the 24 hourcircadian variation mainly follows work/sleep cycle rather than day/night cycle among shift workers. This study also shows that among the night shift, the circadian variation between work and sleep cycle decreased compared to the work/sleep cycle among day shift workers. All time and frequency domain parameters (except LF/HF ratio) show significantly different between work and sleep in the day shift and night shift. Conclusion : These changes in heart rate variability circadian rhythms reflect significant reductions in cardiac parasympathetic activity with the most marked reduction in normal vagal activity among the shift workers. Especially, it suggests the circadian rhytm has blunted among the night workers. The quantification of the circadian variation in HRV can be a surrogates of workers' potential health risk, as well as suggests possible mechanisms through which the shift works compromise workers' health.