Background and aim Driving after a night shift imposes a risk on health care professionals and other road users. The aim of this study was to measure psychomotor performance of driving of night shift nurses compared to day-shift nurses. Methods Forty-seven volunteer female nurses working at Sina hospital in Tehran, Iran, with a call in all departments of hospital, participated in this study (...

INTRODUCTION This study hypothesised that a reduction of sound during the night using earplugs could be beneficial in the prevention of intensive care delirium. Two research questions were formulated. First, does the use of earplugs during the night reduce the onset of delirium or confusion in the ICU? Second, does the use of earplugs during the night improve the quality of sleep in the ICU? ...

The purinergic type P1 (adenosine A1 and A2A) receptors and the type P2 (X7) receptor have been suggested to mediate physiological effects of adenosine and adenosine triphosphate on sleep. We aimed to determine gene expression of A1R (receptor), A2AR, and P2RX7 in leukocytes of healthy subjects during total sleep deprivation followed by sleep recovery. Expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokin...

The present study had two main objectives. The first objective was to compare the sleep architecture of young and older adults, with an emphasis on sleep spindle density and REM density. The second objective was to examine two aspects of age differences that have not been considered in previous studies: age differences in the variability of sleep measures as well as the magnitude of age differe...

STUDY OBJECTIVES To describe behavioral sleep/wake patterns of young children from actigraphy and mothers' reports, assess age-group and sex differences, describe daytime napping, and investigate the impact of family demographic variables on sleep-wake measures. DESIGN Cross-sectional sample of children wore actigraphs for 1 week; mothers kept concurrent diaries. SETTING Children studied in...

BACKGROUND Ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI) has been proposed as an indirect measure of arterial stiffness. The aims of this study were (i) to analyze AASI and pulse pressure (PP) in micro- and normoalbuminuric type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients and healthy controls and (ii) to explore the relation between nocturnal blood pressure (BP) reduction, BP variability, and AASI. METH...

The tuco-tuco Ctenomys aff. knighti is a subterranean rodent which inhabits a semi-arid area in Northwestern Argentina. Although they live in underground burrows where environmental cycles are attenuated, they display robust, 24 h locomotor activity rhythms that are synchronized by light/dark cycles, both in laboratory and field conditions. The underground environment also poses energetic chall...

BACKGROUND There is considerable debate regarding the relationship between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and hypertension. It is unclear whether OSA is an independent vascular risk factor as studies attempting to assess this association have produced conflicting results because of confounding variables such as upper body obesity, alcohol, and smoking. A case-control study of 24 hour ambulatory...

BACKGROUND Hypertension plays a key role in chronic kidney disease (CKD), but CKD itself affects the blood pressure (BP) profile. The aim of this study was to assess the association of BP profile with CKD and the presence of cardiac organ damage. METHODS We studied 1805 patients, referred to our Hypertension Centre, in whom ABPM, blood tests, and echocardiography were clinically indicated. Th...