Dynamic changes in work/rest duty cycles in a study of sleep deprivation

The effects of moderate workload and 72 h of sleep deprivation were studied using a modified continuous-performance paradigm. Ten subjects were tested hourly on a number of perceptual and cognitive tasks designed to require approximately 30 min to complete, with the remainder of each hour free. As sleep deprivation continued, the average time on task increased at an accelerating rate. The rate of increase differed among tasks, with longer tasks showing greater absolute and relative increases than shorter ones. Such increases confound sleep deprivation and workload effects. In this paper, we compare the advantages and disadvantages of several experimental paradigms; describe details of the present design; and discuss methodological problems associated with separating the interactions of sleep deprivation, workload, and circadian variation with performance.     

STAR: A unique embedded performance assessment technique

STAR (The Strategic and Tactical Assessment Record) is a versatile research tool designed to evaluate the effects of sustained performance and other stressors on integrated, complex cognitive functioning. This completely automated task is presented in the form of a highly motivating computer game. However, unlike typical computer games, successful performance of STAR depends on an individual’s ability to rapidly and accurately assess risk/benefit ratios in a variety of situations, and on the skilled use of an array of multipurpose control systems. STAR is unique in that approximately 80 performance measures are unobtrusively embedded in the operations required to “play the game”; no obvious performance assessment interferes with task presentation. STAR provides multiple measures of psychomotor function, attention, memory, information processing, decision making, risk-taking behavior, subjective state, errors, and error paths. In this report, we describe STAR, and summarize two preliminary experiments designed to separately evaluate the effects of task difficulty and task stress level on complex performance.     

A Field Guide to Cinetherapy: On Celluloid Psychoanalysis and Its Practitioners

This paper addresses the strange bedfellowship between psychoanalysis and cinema since the century's turn. Its specific focus is the idiosyncratic psychoanalysis/psychotherapy practised in mainstream cinema and television. Cinetherapists have consistently fallen into one of three categories: Dr. Dippy, a focus of derision, weirder than his patients; Dr. Evil, Hollywood's psychiatric version of the mad, bad scientist; and the unfailingly benevolent, self-sacrificing Dr. Wonderful. The prevalence of these stereotypes has waxed and waned according to shifting cultural circumstances. The study concludes with reflections on the possible impact, deleterious or otherwise, of distorted filmic images of the impossible profession.     

An investigation of monitoring for sleep-related threat in primary insomnia

In Study 1, individuals with primary insomnia (n=32) and good sleepers (n=38), recruited from a university population, completed a semi-structured interview. The interview assessed monitoring for sleep-related threat, negative thoughts and safety behaviours, at night and during the day. Compared to good sleepers, individuals with insomnia reported more frequent monitoring at night and during the day, more negative thoughts associated with monitoring at night and during the day, and the use of more safety behaviours associated with monitoring at night. A path analysis showed that the total monitoring frequency was significantly positively related to the score for total negative thoughts, which in turn, was significantly positively related to the total number of safety behaviours used. Study 2 aimed to test the generalisability of these findings in a clinical sample of individuals with primary insomnia (n=23). The results indicated that the clinical sample also engaged in monitoring for sleep-related threat, experienced negative thoughts and used safety behaviours. Further, more severe insomnia was associated with more negative thoughts and the use of more safety behaviours associated with monitoring at night. Together, these results are consistent with the proposal that monitoring for sleep-related threat functions to maintain insomnia by triggering negative thoughts and the use of safety behaviours. Future research is required to verify the proposed causal status of monitoring, using prospective designs and experimental manipulations.     

Correcting distorted perception of sleep in insomnia: a novel behavioural experiment?

Patients with primary insomnia overestimate their sleep onset latency (SOL) and underestimate their total sleep time (TST). The present study aimed to test the utility of a novel behavioural experiment designed to correct distorted perception of sleep among patients diagnosed with primary insomnia. Individuals with primary insomnia were asked to wear an actigraph and keep a sleep diary for three nights. On the following day, half were shown the discrepancy between the data recorded on the actigraph and their sleep diary (Shown-Discrepancy Group), the other half were not shown the discrepancy (No-Demonstration Group). Participants were then asked to wear the actigraph and keep a sleep diary for three further nights. Following the behavioural experiment, the Shown-Discrepancy Group estimated their SOL more accurately and reported less anxiety and preoccupation about sleep compared to the No-Demonstration Group. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.