Abstract
The increasing demands of the global economy for 24-hour, 7-day operations is affecting the health and performance of workers worldwide. The deleterious effects of chronic sleep deprivation and associated stress have potentially dangerous and expensive consequences as a result of impaired alertness, attention, memory and decision-making for individuals at work, at home and on the roads. In addition, long-term health related concerns, including increased risk for sleep, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases as well as an overall decrease in immune function, are only beginning to be understood. Recent findings reveal individual differences in the level of vulnerability to the effects of sleep deprivation, suggesting that some people are genetically predisposed to better endure sleep loss than others. The ability to select individuals who are relatively resistant to performance decrements due to sleep loss and stress could have immense value to the military and industry in general. This report describes progress in developing non-invasive psychophysiological assessments that provide easy and inexpensive biomarkers for fatigue and stress that can be implemented in operational environments.
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