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Objectives: The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of using an activity workstation on the physiological stress response as measured by heart rate variability while completing cognitively demanding tasks. Participants: Eleven college students (6 females; age: 19.4 ± 0.9 years) participated in the study. Methods: The participants completed three psychologically stressful cognitive tasks while seated at a traditional desk and while using an activity workstation. Heart rate variability was recorded and analyzed with power spectrum density and time-domain analysis. Results: Using activity workstations while completing stressful cognitive tasks did not negatively affect task performance. There was, however, a reduction in low frequency heart rate variability but no change in cardiac sympathovagal balance. Conclusion: The results indicate that using activity workstations while completing difficult tasks reduces sympathetic reactivity to stress in college students. This suggests that using activity workstations could provide a coping mechanism for stress.

Background: Experiential education in higher education provides opportunities for college student development that contribute to student success. As such, a leisure education program is posited as a complement to experiential education programming. Purpose: This study explored the impact of a leisure education program (leisure skills) on dimensions of college student success, including school satisfaction, student life satisfaction, school belonging, and self-esteem. Methodology/Approach: This study compared 531 leisure skills students with a group of 136 students not enrolled in a leisure skills class. Findings/Conclusions: The results of a repeated-measures analysis indicated leisure skills students fared better than non-leisure skills students in the measured dimensions, maintaining similar levels of school satisfaction, life satisfaction, belonging, and self-esteem over the course of the semester while the non-leisure skills students experienced decreases. Implications: Students who chose leisure skills classes experienced stability and improvement in school and student life satisfaction, school belonging, and self-esteem. Therefore, leisure education programming should be further examined as a mechanism for college student success.

Performance on tasks involving speed and accuracy fluctuate throughout the 24-h day negatively affecting shift workers and organizations. Two simulated work shifts common in occupational settings were used to assess performance on a vigilance and math task. In study 1, 33 sleep-deprived participants completed a nightshift. In study 2, 32 partially sleep-deprived participants completed a dayshift. These studies found that performance differed between the type of task and the type of simulated shift where performance during the nightshift was worse than during the dayshift. In addition, collapsing speed and accuracy on the math task into inverse efficiency scores provided a unique measure that captured the impact of circadian rhythms during shiftwork. The current study also indicated that participants adopted cognitive strategies including speed-accuracy tradeoff and regulatory foci regarding work motivation (prevention focus and promotion focus) when completing the tasks depending on time-of-day, type of shift, circadian rhythms, and amount of sleep deprivation. This suggests that researchers and organizations should consider cognitive strategies in addition to the physiological components of sleep deprivation and circadian rhythms when investigating and documenting the impact of time-of-day due to different types of shiftwork conditions on performance and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of self-control occurs in many different types of experimental settings using a wide range of methodologies. In addition, measures of self-control vary in their procedures and operational definitions from simple questionnaires to complex scenarios where individuals must choose to act or not. The present summary draws on trends within the literature using widely accepted measures of self-control. The measures are organized based on established paradigms in the literature and focus on three categories: executive functioning tasks, delay of gratification tasks, and subjective-report surveys. We also include an "additional measures" category to capture measures that do not readily fit in these three categories. Finally, we discuss recent approaches to the scientific exploration of self-control and integrate the categories of measures used here within these approaches. This integration incorporates a wide range of research paradigms and provides direction for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sleep, we're told, will make everything better. But why? How? What is actually happening when we sleep? Sleeping and waking are intrinsic functions of being a mammal. There are some [...]

Objectives The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of using an activity workstation on the physiological stress response as measured by heart rate variability while completing cognitively demanding tasks. Participants: Eleven college students (6 females; age: 19.4 ± 0.9 years) participated in the study. Methods: The participants completed three psychologically stressful cognitive tasks while seated at a traditional desk and while using an activity workstation. Heart rate variability was recorded and analyzed with power spectrum density and time-domain analysis. Results: Using activity workstations while completing stressful cognitive tasks did not negatively affect task performance. There was; however, a reduction in low frequency heart rate variability but no change in cardiac sympathovagal balance. Conclusion: The results indicate that using activity workstations while completing difficult tasks reduces sympathetic reactivity to stress in college students. This suggests that using activity workstations could provide a coping mechanism for stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigators in previous research have indicated that subjective measures of sleepiness may separate into state- and behavior-based dimensions; however, researchers have not examined this under sleep deprivation conditions. The authors' purpose in this study was to examine several measures of subjective sleepiness under sleep deprivation conditions following completion of various tasks. Fourteen students participated in a 28-hour sleep deprivation study and completed vigilance and cognitive tasks 4 times during the night. The authors administered subjective measures of sleepiness after each task. Factor analyses indicated that when individuals were not excessively sleepy, subjective sleepiness measures separated into 2 dimensions: state and behavioral sleepiness. However, when individuals were more fatigued, there was no distinction between the state and behavior dimensions of sleepiness. The current results suggest that using measures that assess state and behavioral sleepiness separately could be useful in clinical and research settings when extreme levels of sleepiness are not expected. Index terms: cognitive tasks, objective sleepiness, performance, subjective sleepiness, vigilance tasks, Many societies are moving toward 24-hour workdays, which often demand that employees work longer and irregular hours. Balkin et al (1) showed that as the job demands for longer working [...]

The authors' purpose in the current study was to apply P. J. Lang's (1968, 1971, 1985) theory of multiple systems of emotional response to the study of subjective sleepiness. A total of 274 participants completed the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS), the Profile of Mood States (POMS), three sleepiness-related Visual Analogue Scales (VAS), and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). The authors completed correlations and factor analysis of the 4 sleepiness measures. The SSS, POMS, and VAS measures were better correlated with each other than with the ESS. Similarly, the SSS, POMS, and VAS measures loaded highly onto one factor, whereas the ESS loaded highly onto a separate factor. These results indicated that the ESS measured a different aspect of subjective sleepiness than the SSS, POMS, or VAS. According to Lang's emotional responses theory, the ESS assessed a behavioral component of sleepiness, and the SSS, POMS, and VAS measures assessed an internal state related to sleepiness. Index Terms: behavioral sleepiness, emotional response, sleepiness, subjective measures, Measures of sleepiness have become increasingly important in recent years to sleep clinicians and researchers as predictors of potential health hazards in our modern society. (1-3) Although numerous measures of [...]

Many healthy adults report daytime napping. Surprisingly few studies, however, have examined spontaneous napping behavior, especially very short naps, in healthy adults. The authors examined the prevalence of power naps [...]

Relationships between sleep and measures of health and well-being in college students have been studied using a repeated measures approach over 3 months. Healthy college students with no sleep complaints completed a 7-day log and battery of surveys. Measures of health and well-being were related more to the quality of sleep than to quantity. Further analyses using repeated measures found participants reported improved sleep and better health. Affect balance, life satisfaction and mood states were not changed in the 3 testing periods. Sleep quality should be looked at as a consistent factor in daily health and well-being., The stability of subjective measures of sleep, health, and well-being, as well as the stability of the relationships between sleep and health and well-being were assessed over 3 months. Healthy [...]

Purpose: To examine how sleep and physical activity predict body mass index (BMI) in college students.Design: Cross-sectional.Setting: Medium-sized public university in the Southeastern United States.Subjects: 386 undergraduate students (245 females; 18-25 years).Measures: Surveys included the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Concise Physical Activity Questionnaire (CPAQ). PSQI provided 5 sleep scores: PSQI Global Score, Sleep Quality Factor Score, Sleep Efficiency Factor Score, Sleep Duration, and Habitual Sleep Efficiency. Height and weight measurements were taken to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI).Analysis: Correlational analyses were completed first. Linear and moderation regression models using CPAQ as the moderator were used to predict BMI. The Johnson-Neyman technique determined regions of significance where sleep significantly predicted BMI dependent on CPAQ score.Results: Sleep Duration significantly predicted BMI (β = -.385, p = .043) while significant interaction terms predicting BMI were found for Global PSQI Score × CPAQ (β = -.103, p = .015) and Sleep Quality Factor Score × CPAQ (β = -.233, p = .013). Johnson-Neyman analyses demonstrated that better sleep quality (measured by Global PSQI and Sleep Quality Factor Scores) predict lower BMI when exercise levels are low and higher BMI when exercise levels are high.Conclusion: At low levels of exercise, better sleep quality significantly predicts lower BMI, suggesting that interventions designed to increase sleep quality could promote healthy weight maintenance in college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A meta-analysis technique was used to quantitatively summarize the effect of hot and cold temperature exposure on performance. Results indicate that both hot and cold temperature exposures had negative effect on performance in a variety of different types of tasks.

Humans intuitively believe that we are in control of ourselves, that a 'me' inside each of us takes charge of what we do, think, and say. But no wizard pulls [...]

This study seeks to understand the degree of body cooling, cold perception and physical discomfort during Antarctic tour excursions. Eight experienced expedition leaders across three Antarctic cruise voyages were monitored during occupational tasks: kayaking, snorkelling and zodiac outings. Subjective cold perception and discomfort were recorded using a thermal comfort assessment and skin temperature was recorded using a portable data logger. Indoor cabin temperature and outdoor temperature with wind velocity were used as measures of environmental stress. Physical activity level and clothing insulation were estimated using previous literature. Tour leaders experienced a 6°C (2°C wind chill) environment for an average of 6 hours each day. Leaders involved in kayaking reported feeling colder and more uncomfortable than other leaders, but zodiac leaders showed greater skin temperature cooling. Occupational experience did not predict body cooling or cold stress perception. These findings indicate that occupational cold stress varies by activity and measurement methodology. The current study effectively used objective and subjective measures of cold-stress to identify factors which can contribute to risk in the Antarctic tourism industry. Results suggest that the type of activity may moderate risk of hypothermia, but not discomfort, potentially putting individuals at risk for cognitive related mistakes and cold injuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]