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Abstract: There is evidence suggesting that exposure to an abnormal magnetic environment may produce psychophysiological effects related to abnormalities in responses to stress. This may be of relevance for space medicine where astronauts are exposed to a magnetic field different from that exerted by the Earth. Aim of this study was to assess how the exposure of the head to a magnetic field simulating the one encountered by the International Space Station (ISS) during a single orbit (90min) around the Earth affects the cardiovascular and psychophysiological parameters. Twenty-four human volunteers were studied double blindly in random order under sham and magnetic exposure. During exposure, the persons were shown a set of pictures of different emotional content while subjective self-rating, skin conductance (SC), blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) were measured. In addition, BP, HR, and tooth pain threshold were assessed before and after exposure. While subjects were under magnetic exposure, skin conductance was strongly differentiated (F 2,36 =22.927; p =0.0001), being high during emotionally involving (positive and negative) pictures and low during neutral pictures. Conversely, when subjects were under sham exposure, no significant differences were observed. There was, however, a trend for higher heart rate during picture viewing under magnetic exposure as compared to sham exposure. No effects were found for the other variables. These results suggest that an abnormal magnetic field that simulates the one encountered by ISS orbiting around the Earth may enhance autonomic response to emotional stimuli. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ABSTRACT. Police, who work shifts, participate in both risky and delicate tasks. The authors investigated sleep habits, prevalence of sleep disorders, sleepiness on the job, and hypnotic drug intake (Benzodiazepines, Zaleplon, Zolpidem, or Zoplicone) in a population of Italian state police officers. This study was conducted with self-administered questionnaires. The investigation focused on the difference between 540 non-shiftworkers (413 males, 127 females) and 575 shiftworkers (483 males, 92 females). All individuals were between 20 yr and 39 yr of age. In shiftworkers, there was a higher prevalence of difficulty in initiating sleep; in addition, these individuals had a sleep latency that exceeded 20 min, and they experienced early awakenings. No significant differences in daytime sleepiness and drug intake existed between the 2 groups. Self-evaluation of the number of hours that individuals slept each night and during a 24-hr period revealed that shiftworkers required more sleep. The results indicated that shiftworkers experienced a lower quality of sleep than non-shiftworkers, but the former did not report increased daytime sleepiness or increased hypnotic drug intake (i.e., Benzodiazepines, Zaleplon, Zolpidem, or Zoplicone). Shiftworkers seemed to compensate for the poor quality of their sleep by sleeping for a greater number of hours during 24-hr periods than the non-shiftworkers. Perhaps the aforementioned compensation resulted from a prolonged recovery from shiftwork effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]