Authors: Shobha Gupta Atanu Kumar Pati Francis Levi
Publish Date: 1997/09/01
Volume: 22, Issue: 4, Pages: 477-488
Abstract
Twenty four shift workers 8 from a steel industry and 16 from a Government hospital participated in the study The subjects were instructed to selfmeasure oral temperature 4 6 times a day for about three weeks Sleep quantity and quality for each subject were analysed with the help of an appropriate inventory The data were analysed by cosinor and power spectrum methods The frequency of circadian rhythm detection was in the order of 48 in senior nurses 29 in steel plant workers and 14 in junior nurses These were also complemented by the results of power spectrum analysis Present results suggest that rhythms of subjective fatigue and subjective drowsiness are governed neither by oral temperature oscillator nor by the sleep/wake cycle oscillator The results show that shift rotation pattern chiefly modulates the circadian time structure of shift workers It is also suggested that the phenomenon of circadian rhythm desynchronization in oral temperature appears to be independent of per day total sleep length
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