Biomedical subjects

Marie Söderström

Publications and source records attributed to Marie Söderström.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Disturbed sleep and fatigue in occupational burnout.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate sleep with polysomnography and self-ratings and the diurnal pattern of sleepiness and fatigue in a group suffering from severe occupational burnout. METHOD: Twelve white-collar workers on long-term sick leave (>3 months) and 12 healthy controls with high and low scores on the Shirom Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (SMBQ) were included. A 1-night polysomnographic recording (after habituation) was carried out at home, and sleepiness and mental fatigue were rated at different times of the day for weekdays and the weekend. Precipitating factors at the time of the illness at work and real life were considered, and different dimensions of occupational fatigue were described. A repeated-measures analysis of variance using two or three within group factors was used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The main polysomnographic findings were more arousals and sleep fragmentation, more wake time and stage-1 sleep, lower sleep efficiency, less slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep, and a lower delta power density in non-rapid eye movement sleep in the burnout group. The burnout patients showed pronounced sleepiness and mental fatigue at most times of the day for weekdays without reduction during weekends. The precipitating factor was occupational stress (psychiatric interview), and work stress indicators were increased. CONCLUSIONS: Occupational burnout is characterized by impaired sleep. It is suggested that impaired sleep may play a role in the development of fatigue or exhaustion in burnout.

Burnout, Professional↗

PubMed2005

Less effective executive functioning after one night's sleep deprivation.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is affected negatively by sleep deprivation (SD) and executive functioning is largely dependent on activity in the PFC. Earlier studies have focused on subsystems of executive functioning, and tests of executive functioning have shown both low reliability and low validity. In the present study, 11 healthy volunteers were sleep deprived and compared with 11 healthy controls in a study on effects of one night's SD on integrative executive functioning. Following SD, the performance of subjects on an ecologically valid test, the modified Six Elements Test, was significantly impaired. There were no group differences on psychomotor vigilance, verbal or visuo-spatial working memory. This extends previous knowledge of performance effects of SD, and may be of special importance for individuals with cognitive work tasks.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Sleep and sleepiness in young individuals with high burnout scores.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Burnout is a growing health problem in Western society. This study aimed to investigate sleep in subjects scoring high on burnout but still at work. The purpose was also to study the diurnal pattern of sleepiness, as well as ratings of work stress and mood in groups with different burnout scores. DESIGN: Sleep was recorded in 2 groups (high vs low on burnout) during 2 nights; 1 before a workday and 1 before a day off, in a balanced order. Sleepiness ratings as well as daytime diary ratings were analyzed for the workday and the day off after the sleep recordings. SETTING: The polysomnographic recordings were made in the subjects' home. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-four healthy individuals (14 women and 10 men) between the ages of 24 and 43 years participated. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: A higher frequency of arousals during sleep (Workday: high burnout = 12+/-1 per hour, low burnout = 8+/-1 per hour; Day off: high burnout = 12+/-2 per hour, low burnout =8+/-1 per hour), and more subjective awakening problems were found in the high-burnout group. The diurnal pattern of sleepiness indicated that the high-burnout group did not recover in the same way as did the low-burnout group on the day off. Indicators of impaired recovery were also seen within the high-burnout group as a higher degree of bringing work home and working on weekends, as well as more complaints of work interfering with leisure time. CONCLUSIONS: Young subjects with high burnout scores, but who are still working, show more arousals during sleep and an absence of reduced sleepiness during days off.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Microarousals during sleep are associated with increased levels of lipids, cortisol, and blood pressure.

OBJECTIVE: Previous work has demonstrated a link between restricted sleep and risk indicators for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, such as levels of cortisol, lipids, and glucose. The present study sought to identify relations between polysomnographic measures of disturbed sleep (frequency of arousals from sleep, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency) and a number of such indicators. A second purpose was to relate the number of arousals to mood, stress, work characteristics, and other possible predictors in daily life. METHODS: Twenty-four people (10 men, 14 women; mean age 30 years), high vs. low on burnout, were recruited from a Swedish IT company. Polysomnographically recorded sleep was measured at home before a workday. Blood pressure, heart rate, morning blood sample, and saliva samples of cortisol were measured the subsequent working day. They were also recorded for diary ratings of sleep and stress, and a questionnaire with ratings of sleep, stress, work conditions, and mood was completed. RESULTS: A stepwise regression analysis using sleep parameters as predictors brought out number of arousals as the best predictor of morning cortisol (serum and saliva), heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-, low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, and LDL/HDL-ratio. Work stress/unclear boundaries between work and leisure time was the best predictor of arousals among the stress variables. CONCLUSION: Consistent with sleep restriction experiments, sleep fragmentation was associated with elevated levels of metabolic and cardiovascular risk indicators of stress-related disorders. Number of arousals also seems to be related to workload/stress.

Activities of Daily Living↗