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(1 - 16 of 16)
- Title
- SLEEPING, NAPPING AND STAYING UP: THE MEANINGS OF SLEEP AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS.
- Creator
-
Tate, Natasha, Mishtal, Joanna, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Throughout public discourse, sleep, despite being a physiological function and an important facet of an individual's health, is frequently utilized as a rhetorical device to comment on an individual's productivity within society. As Antje Richter (2003:34) explains, to consider someone early to rise yet late to bed is less a comment on their sleeping behavior and more an assessment of their dedication to their business. Too often productivity is conveyed as existing in the absence of sleep,...
Show moreThroughout public discourse, sleep, despite being a physiological function and an important facet of an individual's health, is frequently utilized as a rhetorical device to comment on an individual's productivity within society. As Antje Richter (2003:34) explains, to consider someone early to rise yet late to bed is less a comment on their sleeping behavior and more an assessment of their dedication to their business. Too often productivity is conveyed as existing in the absence of sleep, an idea that has contributed to the association of sleep with laziness (Yi 2003:60) and a general misuse of time (Richter 2003:36). The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between sleep and personal perspectives of productivity within a college population. Utilizing in depth, ethnographic semi-structured interviews, and working with 25 college students from the University of Central Florida, it was found that the standards and expectations students have internalized regarding their productivity are influencing the way in which they are practicing in their daily sleeping behaviors and ultimately influencing the amount of sleep they get each night.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFH0004383, ucf:45025
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004383
- Title
- SHOULD ATHLETES RECEIVE SLEEP HYGIENE EDUCATION? A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW.
- Creator
-
Contreras, Ines L, Fisher, Thomas J., Valdes, Anna, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Previous studies show the need to find a solution to improve the athlete's recovery and help overcome their sleep disorders. Sleep hygiene is a list of habits and recommendation that enhance sleep quality. Sleep hygiene education has been used in some research to fill the need of the athletes. Still, a lack of information exists on the development of sleep hygiene programs and related impacts. This thesis aims to perform a systematic review of the literature of scholarly journals articles...
Show morePrevious studies show the need to find a solution to improve the athlete's recovery and help overcome their sleep disorders. Sleep hygiene is a list of habits and recommendation that enhance sleep quality. Sleep hygiene education has been used in some research to fill the need of the athletes. Still, a lack of information exists on the development of sleep hygiene programs and related impacts. This thesis aims to perform a systematic review of the literature of scholarly journals articles from 2007 to 2018, focusing on the relationship between sleep hygiene education and athletes sleep quality and quantity. The investigation concluded with 16 qualifying articles. A synthesis of recommendations from all studies offered sleep hygiene suggestions for athletes; all the results are provided in table 12. The further overall conclusion of the selected articles settled that sleep hygiene is recommended for athletes, yet the methods and strategies are vague and not precise. A strong recommendation from this systematic literature review is the creation of a standardized list of sleep hygiene habits focused on athletes to improve their sleep quality and quantity.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFH2000477, ucf:45839
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000477
- Title
- Examining the impact of a fatigue intervention on job performance: A longitudinal study across United States hospitals.
- Creator
-
Gregory, Megan, Salas, Eduardo, Wang, Wei, Fritzsche, Barbara, Burke, Shawn, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Fatigue in healthcare providers has been linked to dangerous outcomes for patients, including medical errors, surgical complications, and accidents. Resident physicians, who traditionally work long hours on minimal sleep, are among the most fatigued. In attempt to mitigate the impact of fatigue on resident physician performance and improve patient safety, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented a fatigue intervention program in 2011 for medical residency...
Show moreFatigue in healthcare providers has been linked to dangerous outcomes for patients, including medical errors, surgical complications, and accidents. Resident physicians, who traditionally work long hours on minimal sleep, are among the most fatigued. In attempt to mitigate the impact of fatigue on resident physician performance and improve patient safety, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented a fatigue intervention program in 2011 for medical residency programs in the United States. This caused a significant decrease in the number of hours that first-year residents were permitted to work, compared with hours worked by first-year residents in prior years. While studies investigating the impact of the 2011 ACGME fatigue intervention on outcomes are limited thus far, some initial evidence seems to be promising. For instance, Pepper, Schweinfurth, and Herrin (2014) found that the rate of transfers to the intensive care unit after a code blue significantly decreased from pre- to post-intervention. However, it is not currently understood what variables may drive positive changes in patient outcomes, nor how long it may take for these changes to occur. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect that the 2011 ACGME fatigue intervention has had on job performance in healthcare providers in U.S. hospitals. The current study attempted to address this question by taking both a micro perspective, by drawing upon cognitive theories (Kahneman, 1973, 2011) and skill acquisition theory (Fitts, 1964; Fitts (&) Posner, 1967), as well as a macro perspective, by drawing upon organizational change theories (DiMaggio (&) Powell, 1983).This study combined public-use databases provided by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Specifically, 1,277 hospitals in the United States were examined over a five year period on job performance behaviors to determine if there was significant change from pre-intervention to post-intervention. Hospitals were categorized as control hospitals (n = 594) and intervention hospitals (n = 683). More specifically, intervention hospitals were analyzed according to their resident-to-patient bed ratio, using guidelines provided by Patel et al. (2014), including very low resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 174), low resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 287), high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 143), and very high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals (n = 79). Further, organizational size was examined as a moderator. The current study used discontinuous growth modeling (Bliese, 2008; Ployhart, 2014; J. D. Singer (&) Willett, 2003) to analyze the data, which allowed for investigation into the magnitude and rate of change from pre- to post-intervention. Results show that there was a significant improvement in employee job performance over time across both intervention and control hospitals. In particular, job performance significantly improved abruptly at the transition period (i.e., when the intervention was introduced) and continued to improve gradually throughout the post-intervention period; yet, these results held for both intervention and control hospitals. However, exploratory analyses comparing control hospitals to very high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals found that the latter group improved significantly more at the transition period in comparison to control hospitals. I therefore conclude that there may be some effect of the fatigue intervention on job performance, but this effect may be visible only in very high resident-to-bed ratio hospitals. Further, organizational size was not a significant moderator of the relationship. Future research is needed to confirm these findings.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0005952, ucf:50807
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005952
- Title
- THE EFFECTS OF CEREBROVASCULAR AGING ON SLEEP QUALITY IN A SAMPLE OF AGING ADULTS.
- Creator
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Mapp, Chelsea Tia, Paulson, Daniel, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Cerebrovascular burden (CVB) is a significant factor among the aging population. Age-related cognitive decline is an important social and economic issue, and understanding the mechanisms has clinical implications, both in selecting potential therapies and in choosing specific modifiers for their evaluation. In summary, past work suggests that high CVB is one source of variance in neurovascular functioning among older adults. High CVB and associated brain-changes have been identified as causes...
Show moreCerebrovascular burden (CVB) is a significant factor among the aging population. Age-related cognitive decline is an important social and economic issue, and understanding the mechanisms has clinical implications, both in selecting potential therapies and in choosing specific modifiers for their evaluation. In summary, past work suggests that high CVB is one source of variance in neurovascular functioning among older adults. High CVB and associated brain-changes have been identified as causes of age-related changes and it may be that high CVB is a correlate of age-related changes in sleep quality. The primary hypothesis to be tested is that cerebrovascular burden measured using an index variable reflecting blood pressure, resting heart rate, and blood oxygen saturation, will predict subjective sleep quality in a sample of adults over age 70. Sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. A sample of 8 dementia-free, community dwelling participants over the age of 70 completed the study. Though individual cerebrovascular risk factors (blood pressure, resting heart rate) had moderate but non-significant correlations with sleep quality, only the CVB index variable significantly related (1-tailed) to sleep quality. Findings support the hypothesized relationship. Future research should seek to replicate these findings with a larger sample, and to identify mechanisms by which this relationship may function.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFH2000065, ucf:45532
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000065
- Title
- Subjective-Objective Discrepancies Among Patients with Sleep Complaints in the Patient-Centered Medical Home.
- Creator
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Dotson, Keri, Dunn, Michael, Cassisi, Jeffrey, Bowers, Clint, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Sleep misperception (-) the discrepancy between objective and subjective measures of sleep (-) has been shown to be prevalent among patients with insomnia and may be a promising target for sleep intervention. This study examined sleep misperception in a diverse outpatient medical sample using consumer-grade wearable actigraphs (i.e., Fitbit Charge HR(TM)). Forty-four self-identified problem sleepers aged 20 to 79 participated in the study. Participants completed sleep diaries for one week...
Show moreSleep misperception (-) the discrepancy between objective and subjective measures of sleep (-) has been shown to be prevalent among patients with insomnia and may be a promising target for sleep intervention. This study examined sleep misperception in a diverse outpatient medical sample using consumer-grade wearable actigraphs (i.e., Fitbit Charge HR(TM)). Forty-four self-identified problem sleepers aged 20 to 79 participated in the study. Participants completed sleep diaries for one week while also tracking their sleep using the Fitbit Charge HR(TM). After receiving a personalized sleep report based on these data, participants repeated another week of sleep assessment. Sleep misperception was observed for both total sleep time and sleep onset latency during the first week, such that participants underestimated their total amount of sleep per night and overestimated the amount of time it took them to fall asleep. Pre-post changes in self-reported sleep, mood, and health were examined as a secondary aim in this study. Objectively measured sleep remained relatively unchanged from baseline to follow-up. Despite this lack of change in actual sleep, participants perceived themselves to be sleeping more hours per night, falling asleep more quickly, and sleeping better overall at one-week follow-up. Statistically significant improvements in depression, anxiety, mental health functioning, and insomnia symptom severity were also observed at follow-up. Overall, findings showed that sleep misperception is prevalent among problem sleepers and that sleep discrepancy can be reduced through the use of corrective sleep feedback.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0006976, ucf:51645
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006976
- Title
- SHORT TERM EXAMINATION OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND SLEEP QUALITY WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER.
- Creator
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Barnes, Demani Barak, Garcia, Jeanette M., Fukuda, David H., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may not be meeting the recommended amounts of physical activity (PA) or obtain a sufficient amount of sleep, however, few studies have objectively compared PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality between typically developing (TD) youth, and youth with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare levels of PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality between youth with ASD and TD youth. Twenty-three children with ASD and 12 TD...
Show moreChildren diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may not be meeting the recommended amounts of physical activity (PA) or obtain a sufficient amount of sleep, however, few studies have objectively compared PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality between typically developing (TD) youth, and youth with ASD. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare levels of PA, sedentary behavior, and sleep quality between youth with ASD and TD youth. Twenty-three children with ASD and 12 TD children wore the Actigraph GT9X accelerometer over seven days and nights to assess activity and sleep. Youth with ASD had significantly greater levels of sedentary behavior (p=.02), and had less sleep efficiency compared to TD youth (p=.0001). Additionally, TD youth were more likely to achieve the recommended levels of PA compared to youth with ASD (p=.003). Results suggest that youth with ASD have poorer health habits compared to TD youth. Interventions should be developed to target health behaviors in youth with ASD.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2019
- Identifier
- CFH2000490, ucf:45830
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000490
- Title
- FIVE DEGREES: A SHORT STORY.
- Creator
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Hinds, Cassia E, Grajeda, Anthony, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
An interwoven fiction piece representing four perspectives and its effects on self-awareness. The most effective way to blur the line of self in this structure is to braid the minds, voices, and stories, of each perspective. With a focal point where all the voices eventually drift to being the frame of the story, there will be a unique distance between the stories. This thesis explores the effects of different types of mental and physiological illnesses through fiction, highlighting the...
Show moreAn interwoven fiction piece representing four perspectives and its effects on self-awareness. The most effective way to blur the line of self in this structure is to braid the minds, voices, and stories, of each perspective. With a focal point where all the voices eventually drift to being the frame of the story, there will be a unique distance between the stories. This thesis explores the effects of different types of mental and physiological illnesses through fiction, highlighting the effect of perception on fact and the perspective of the mentally ill.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFH2000124, ucf:45992
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000124
- Title
- THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SLEEP, WORKING MEMORY, AND DECISION MAKING IN YOUNG AND OLD ADULT POPULATIONS.
- Creator
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Merz, Melissa G., Lighthall, Nichole, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Sleep is known to influence basic tasks concerning working memory, reaction time and executive functioning (Silva, Wang, Ronda, Wyatt, & Duffy, 2010; Nebes, Buysse, Halligan, Houck, & Monk, 2009). However, the amount that sleep influences these functions varies from study to study possibly due to differences in age and task design. Aim 1A of this study is to determine if sleep quality affects working memory. Aim 1B of this study is to determine if age affects sleep quality and working memory...
Show moreSleep is known to influence basic tasks concerning working memory, reaction time and executive functioning (Silva, Wang, Ronda, Wyatt, & Duffy, 2010; Nebes, Buysse, Halligan, Houck, & Monk, 2009). However, the amount that sleep influences these functions varies from study to study possibly due to differences in age and task design. Aim 1A of this study is to determine if sleep quality affects working memory. Aim 1B of this study is to determine if age affects sleep quality and working memory in comparison of young and old adult populations. Finally, Aim 2 of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between sleep quality, working memory, and decision making in the younger adults. These aims were researched using a validated and commonly used sleep questionnaire: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). In addition, the study utilized an n-back test to measure working memory and executive functioning, and an economic decision task to measure decision making accuracy. Results show that sleep quality did not significantly influence accuracy on an n-back test in either age group, but age was significantly correlated with accuracy on an n-back test in the older adults. The study also found a relationship between working memory performance and complex decision making among younger adults, but this relationship was not modulated by sleep quality. Our findings suggest that self-reported sleep quality is not a strong predictor of working memory or complex decision making, particularly in early adulthood. Future research on this topic may benefit from a more objective measure of sleep quality and from larger samples across different phases of the lifespan.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFH2000210, ucf:46023
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH2000210
- Title
- Sleep Disturbances Among Firefighters: The Impact Of Shift Work On Sleep And Cognition.
- Creator
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Stout, Jeremy, Beidel, Deborah, Bowers, Clint, Paulson, Daniel, Dziegielewski, Sophia, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
A comprehensive sleep assessment of 45 firefighters was conducted over 9- days in an effort to determine the impact of their 24 hour work and 48 hour off work schedule on their sleep duration, sleep quality, processing speed, sustained attention, vigilance, and mental health. Chronic patterns of poor sleep are associated with an increased likelihood of performing poorly on tasks that require processing speed and sustained attention/vigilance which could lead to firefighters' suboptimal work...
Show moreA comprehensive sleep assessment of 45 firefighters was conducted over 9- days in an effort to determine the impact of their 24 hour work and 48 hour off work schedule on their sleep duration, sleep quality, processing speed, sustained attention, vigilance, and mental health. Chronic patterns of poor sleep are associated with an increased likelihood of performing poorly on tasks that require processing speed and sustained attention/vigilance which could lead to firefighters' suboptimal work performance or an increased risk of injury. Firefighters completed sleep actigraphy, self- report measures, as well as neuropsychological sub-tests at their beginning of their shift and immediately at the end of their work shift. As measured by actigraphy, firefighters in this sample slept an average of 5 hours and 20.99 minutes at work, which was significantly less than was found in a large sample of U.S. working adults. Firefighters endorsed poor sleep efficiency and poor sleep quality as assessed by self-report and objective actigraphy. One limitation is that only 12 of the 45 firefighters endorsed responding to a nighttime call during the work night that occurred between the two neuropsychological assessments. Comparing changes in neuropsychological performance between firefighters who had disrupted sleep compared to firefighters who did not, significant performances decrements were evident only for the psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) reaction time. If confirmed with a larger sample, the results suggest that reaction time may be a sensitive indicator of decreasing cognitive performance because of sleep loss. Limitations, future study directions, and recommendations are discussed.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007251, ucf:52190
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007251
- Title
- IDENTIFYING PATIENTS AT RISK FOR OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE: CAN OBESITY IN COMBINATION WITH OTHER HIGH-RISK DIAGNOSES BE USED FOR SCREENING PURPOSES?.
- Creator
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Lima, Clelia, Norris, Anne, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects about 15 million adults in the United States, and is an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality. The under-diagnosing of OSA has been linked to the inadequate screening by primary care practitioners (PCPs). Existing screening tools are not widely used by PCPs possibly due to time constraints they experience as providers. This study demonstrates how common high-risk diagnoses (obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia,...
Show moreObstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affects about 15 million adults in the United States, and is an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality. The under-diagnosing of OSA has been linked to the inadequate screening by primary care practitioners (PCPs). Existing screening tools are not widely used by PCPs possibly due to time constraints they experience as providers. This study demonstrates how common high-risk diagnoses (obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type 2, dyslipidemia, arrhythmia, and coronary artery disease) can be used to help PCPs identify adult patients at risk for OSA. Unlike other screening tools, these diagnoses are easy to identify in a routine visit. This study was a retrospective chart review that used a random sample of 220 electronic health records. Seventy percent of the sample was positive for OSA, 69% had obesity, and 33% had two or more high-risk diagnoses. The setting of this study was six sleep centers located in five cities in Central Florida. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data to determine interaction among variables and odds ratios. The variables "obesity" and "two or more high-risk diagnoses" had significant effects on the likelihood of being diagnosed with OSA independently of each other (odds ratio of 4.2 and 4.3 respectively; p<.001). However, there was no significant interaction between these two variables (p=.56). The predictive value for an OSA diagnosis using "obesity" was 83%, and it was 88% using "two or more high-risk diagnoses." These findings argue for the use of high-risk diagnoses to identify patients at risk for OSA. PCPs are in an ideal position to increase the number of patients screened and treated for OSA because they routinely see patients with these diagnoses in their practices. Proper diagnosis and treatment of OSA has the potential to improve patients' outcomes and their quality of life.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003620, ucf:48863
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003620
- Title
- A Short Window Granger Causality Approach to Identify Brain Functional Pattern Associated with Changes of Performance Induced by Sleep Deprivation.
- Creator
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Li, Muyuan, Karwowski, Waldemar, Xanthopoulos, Petros, Hancock, Peter, Mikusinski, Piotr, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The comprehensive effect of sleep deprivation on biological and behavioral functions largely remains unknown. There is evidence to support that human sleep must be of sufficient duration and physiological continuity to ensure neurocognitive performance while we are waking. Insufficient sleep would lead to high risk of human-error related to accidents, injuries or even fatal outcomes. However, in modern society, more and more people suffer from sleep deprivation because of the increasing...
Show moreThe comprehensive effect of sleep deprivation on biological and behavioral functions largely remains unknown. There is evidence to support that human sleep must be of sufficient duration and physiological continuity to ensure neurocognitive performance while we are waking. Insufficient sleep would lead to high risk of human-error related to accidents, injuries or even fatal outcomes. However, in modern society, more and more people suffer from sleep deprivation because of the increasing social, academic or occupational demand. It is important to study the effect of sleep deprivation, not only on task performance, but also on neurocognitive functions. Recent research that has explored brain effective connectivity has demonstrated the directed inference interaction among pairs of brain areas, which may bring important insight to understand how brain works to support neurocognitive function. This research aimed to identify the brain effective connectivity pattern associated with changes of a task performance, response time, following sleep deprivation. Experiments were conducted by colleagues at Neuroergonomics Department at Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. Ten healthy young women, with an average age of 23-year-old, performed visual spatial sustained-attention tasks under two conditions: (1) the rest-wakeful (RW) condition, where participants had their usual sleep and (2) the sleep-deprived (SD) condition, where participants had 3 hours less sleep than their usual sleep, for 7 nights (amounting to 21 h of sleep debt).Measures included eye tracking performance and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In each condition, each subject's eye-position was monitored through 13 sessions, each with 46 trials, while fMRI data was recorded. There were two task performance measures, accuracy and response time. Accuracy measured the proportion of correct responses of all trials in each session. Response time measured the average amount of milliseconds until participants gazed at the target stimuli in each session. An experimental session could be treated as a short window. By splitting long trials of fMRI data into consecutive windows, Granger causality was applied based on short trials of fMRI data. This procedure helped to calculate pairwise causal influences with respect to time-varying property in brain causal interaction. Causal influence results were then averaged across sessions to create one matrix for each participant. This matrix was averaged within each condition to formulate a model of brain effective connectivity, which also served as a basis of comparison. In conclusion, significant effect of sleep deprivation was found on response time and brain effective connectivity. In addition, the change of brain effective connectivity after sleep deprivation was linked to the change of response time. First, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant difference for response time between the RW condition and the SD condition. No significant changes for accuracy were found. A paired t-test showed that response time was significantly shorter in sleep deprivation for the visual spatial sustained-attention task. Second, Granger causality analysis demonstrated a reduction of bidirectional connectivity and an increase of directed influences from low-level brain areas to high-level brain areas after sleep deprivation. This observation suggested that sleep deprivation provoked the effective connectivity engaged in salient stimuli processing, but inhibited the effective connectivity in biasing selection of attention on task and in maintaining self-awareness in day time. Furthermore, in the SD condition, attention at the visual spatial task seemed to be driven by a bottom-up modulation mechanism. Third, a relationship was found between brain effective connectivity with response time. Decreases of Granger causal influences in two directions, from medial frontal lobe to sub cortical gray nuclei and from medial parietal lobe to sub cortical gray nuclei, were associated with shorter response time in the SD condition. Additionally, an increase of Granger causal influence from medial parietal lobe to cerebellum was associated with longer response time in the SD condition.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2014
- Identifier
- CFE0005825, ucf:50922
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005825
- Title
- Role of Sleep in Exposure Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in OIF/OEF Combat Veterans.
- Creator
-
Mesa, Franklin, Beidel, Deborah, Neer, Sandra, Bowers, Clint, Ni, Liqiang, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Exposure therapy is theorized to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology by promoting habituation/extinction of fear responses to trauma-related cues. Empirical evidence indicates that emotional memory, including habituation/extinction learning, is enhanced by sleep. However, service members with combat-related PTSD often report disturbed sleep. In this study, quality of sleep and indicators of extinction learning were examined in veterans of recent wars who had completed...
Show moreExposure therapy is theorized to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology by promoting habituation/extinction of fear responses to trauma-related cues. Empirical evidence indicates that emotional memory, including habituation/extinction learning, is enhanced by sleep. However, service members with combat-related PTSD often report disturbed sleep. In this study, quality of sleep and indicators of extinction learning were examined in veterans of recent wars who had completed an exposure-based PTSD intervention. Fifty-five participants were categorized into two groups based on self-reported quality of sleep: low sleep disruption severity (LSDS; N = 29) and high sleep disruption severity (HSDS; N = 26). Participants in the LSDS group exhibited faster habituation to their traumatic memories and reported less PTSD symptomatology during and following treatment relative to participants in the HSDS group. These findings indicate that individuals with combat-related PTSD reporting less disturbed sleep experience greater extinction learning during exposure therapy. Thus, incorporating interventions that target PTSD-related sleep disturbances may be one way to maximize exposure therapy outcomes in service members with PTSD.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006355, ucf:51520
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006355
- Title
- Sleep Disturbances Among Combat Military Veterans: A Comparative Study.
- Creator
-
Stout, Jeremy, Beidel, Deborah, Neer, Sandra, Bowers, Clint, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
The sleep characteristics of 37 military combat veterans (17 with PTSD and 20 without PTSD) of recent wars were analyzed to determine if combat deployment, with its resultant wartime sleep restriction, may be an alternative explanation for the sleep duration complaints found among combat veterans with PTSD (as determined by PCL-M scores). Participants completed sleep actigraphy and a self-report measure of sleep duration over a 1-week period. Although strongly correlated, a comparison of...
Show moreThe sleep characteristics of 37 military combat veterans (17 with PTSD and 20 without PTSD) of recent wars were analyzed to determine if combat deployment, with its resultant wartime sleep restriction, may be an alternative explanation for the sleep duration complaints found among combat veterans with PTSD (as determined by PCL-M scores). Participants completed sleep actigraphy and a self-report measure of sleep duration over a 1-week period. Although strongly correlated, a comparison of subjective (e.g., self-report) and objective (e.g., actigraphy) sleep duration revealed a significant difference in sleep duration based on method of assessment. With respect to group differences, actigraphy data did not reveal a significant difference in sleep duration based on the presence of PTSD, whereas there was a significant difference based on self-report. Veterans without PTSD self- reported a significantly longer sleep duration than what was recorded by actigraphy; a difference of one hour and 11 minutes (p = 0.000); the difference was one hour and nine minutes. In an effort to determine why veterans without PTSD perceived that they slept longer than they actually did, factors related to sleep quality were examined. The results indicated that measures of hyper arousal (anger, anxiety, nightmares) were significantly correlated with sleep duration, suggesting a pattern of autonomic arousal that is known to interfere with restful sleep. Further research is necessary to determine if the sleep of veteran with PTSD is actually different from that of combat veterans without PTSD, and if such differences are actually amenable to treatment for PTSD.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006232, ucf:51055
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006232
- Title
- Psychopathology and Functional Impairment in Adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder.
- Creator
-
Mesa, Franklin, Beidel, Deborah, Cassisi, Jeffrey, Neer, Sandra, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
Although social anxiety disorder is most often diagnosed during adolescence, few investigations have examined the clinical presentation of this disorder exclusively in adolescents. Prior studies have demonstrated that some clinical features of SAD in adolescents are unique relative to younger children with the condition. Furthermore, the extant literature on daily functional impairment in this population is limited. In this investigation, multiple areas of functioning were examined in...
Show moreAlthough social anxiety disorder is most often diagnosed during adolescence, few investigations have examined the clinical presentation of this disorder exclusively in adolescents. Prior studies have demonstrated that some clinical features of SAD in adolescents are unique relative to younger children with the condition. Furthermore, the extant literature on daily functional impairment in this population is limited. In this investigation, multiple areas of functioning were examined in adolescents with SAD (n = 16) and normal control adolescents (n = 14): specific social skills, subjective distress and physiological reactivity during one speech performance task and one social interaction task; alcohol use and expectancies; subjective and objective quality of sleep; and daily distressing social activities. No differences were observed in sleep actigraphy, self-reported sleep difficulties, alcohol use, or alcohol expectancies. Adolescents with SAD reported greater distress during both analogue tasks relative to NC adolescents. During the speech task, adolescents with SAD exhibited significantly greater speech latency (4.42 seconds vs. 1.75 seconds) and spoke significantly less (83.09 seconds vs. 167.75 seconds) than NC adolescents. Additionally, SAD participants manifested greater skin conductance during the speech task. During the social interaction, adolescents with SAD asked significantly fewer questions (2.20 vs. 7.07) and required significantly more confederate prompts (2.33 vs. 1.14) to stimulate interaction. Finally, adolescents with SAD reported more frequent anxiety-provoking situations in their daily lives and greater avoidance of these situations, including answering questions in class, assertive communication, and interacting with a group. The findings are discussed with respect to the current understanding of alcohol use, quality of sleep, and social functioning in adolescents with SAD.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2013
- Identifier
- CFE0004891, ucf:49648
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004891
- Title
- The effects of chronic sleep deprivation on sustained attention: A study of brain dynamic functional connectivity.
- Creator
-
He, Yiling, Karwowski, Waldemar, Xanthopoulos, Petros, Hancock, Peter, Mikusinski, Piotr, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
-
It is estimated that about 35-40% of adults in the U.S. suffer from insufficient sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation has become a prevalent phenomenon because of contemporary lifestyle and work-related factors. Sleep deprivation can reduce the capabilities and efficiency of attentional performance by impairing perception, increasing effort to maintain concentration, as well as introducing vision disturbance. Thus, it is important to understand the neural mechanisms behind how chronic sleep...
Show moreIt is estimated that about 35-40% of adults in the U.S. suffer from insufficient sleep. Chronic sleep deprivation has become a prevalent phenomenon because of contemporary lifestyle and work-related factors. Sleep deprivation can reduce the capabilities and efficiency of attentional performance by impairing perception, increasing effort to maintain concentration, as well as introducing vision disturbance. Thus, it is important to understand the neural mechanisms behind how chronic sleep deprivation impairs sustained attention.In recent years, more attention has been paid to the study of the integration between anatomically distributed and functionally connected brain regions. Functional connectivity has been widely used to characterize brain functional integration, which measures the statistical dependency between neurophysiological events of the human brain. Further, evidence from recent studies has shown the non-stationary nature of brain functional connectivity, which may reveal more information about the human brain. Thus, the objective of this thesis is to investigate the effects of chronic sleep deprivation on sustained attention from the perspective of dynamic functional connectivity.A modified spatial cueing paradigm was used to assess human sustained attention in rested wakefulness and chronic sleep deprivation conditions. Partial least squares approach was applied to distinguish brain functional connectivity for the experimental conditions. With the integration of a sliding-window approach, dynamic patterns of brain functional connectivity were identified in two experimental conditions. The brain was modeled as a series of dynamic functional networks in each experimental condition. Graph theoretic analysis was performed to investigate the dynamic properties of brain functional networks, using network measures of clustering coefficient and characteristics path length.In the chronic sleep deprivation condition, a compensation mechanism between highly clustered organization and ineffective adaptability of brain functional networks was observed. Specifically, a highly clustered organization of brain functional networks was illustrated with a large clustering coefficient. This organization suggested that brain utilizes more connections to maintain attention in the chronic sleep deprivation condition. A smaller impact of clustering coefficient variation on characteristics path lengths indicated an ineffective adaptability of brain functional networks in the chronic sleep deprivation condition. In the rested wakefulness condition, brain functional networks showed the small-world topology in general, with the average small-world topology index larger than one. Small-world topology was identified as an optimal network structure with the balance between local information processing and global integration. Given the fluctuating values of the index over time, small-world brain networks were observed in most cases, indicating an effective adaptability of the human brain to maintain the dominance of small-world networks in the rested wakefulness condition. On the contrary, given that the average small-world topology index was smaller than one, brain functional networks generally exhibited random network structure. From the perspective of dynamic functional networks, even though there were few cases showing small-world brain networks, brain functional networks failed to maintain the dominance of small-world topology in the chronic sleep deprivation condition.In conclusion, to the best of our knowledge this thesis was the first to investigate the effects of chronic sleep deprivation on sustained attention from the perspective of dynamic brain functional connectivity. A compensation mechanism between highly clustered organization and ineffective adaptability of brain functional networks was observed in the chronic sleep deprivation condition. Furthermore, chronic sleep deprivation impaired sustained attention by reducing the effectiveness of brain functional networks' adaptability, resulting in the disrupted dominance of small-world brain networks.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2015
- Identifier
- CFE0006036, ucf:50990
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006036
- Title
- Biomechanical Models of Human Upper and Tracheal Airway Functionality.
- Creator
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Kuruppumullage, Don Nadun, Ilegbusi, Olusegun, Kassab, Alain, Moslehy, Faissal, Santhanam, Anand, Mansy, Hansen, Hoffman Ruddy, Bari, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The respiratory tract, in other words, the airway, is the primary airflow path for several physiological activities such as coughing, breathing, and sneezing. Diseases can impact airway functionality through various means including cancer of the head and neck, Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and sleep disorders and all of which are considered in this study. In this dissertation, numerical modeling techniques were used to simulate three distinct airway diseases: a weak...
Show moreThe respiratory tract, in other words, the airway, is the primary airflow path for several physiological activities such as coughing, breathing, and sneezing. Diseases can impact airway functionality through various means including cancer of the head and neck, Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and sleep disorders and all of which are considered in this study. In this dissertation, numerical modeling techniques were used to simulate three distinct airway diseases: a weak cough leading to aspiration, upper airway patency in obstructive sleep apnea, and tongue cancer in swallow disorders. The work described in this dissertation, therefore, divided into three biomechanical models, of which fluid and particulate dynamics model of cough is the first. Cough is an airway protective mechanism, which results from a coordinated series of respiratory, laryngeal, and pharyngeal muscle activity. Patients with diminished upper airway protection often exhibit cough impairment resulting in aspiration pneumonia. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique was used to simulate airflow and penetrant behavior in the airway geometry reconstructed from Computed Tomography (CT) images acquired from participants. The second study describes Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and the effects of dilator muscular activation on the human retro-lingual airway in OSA. Computations were performed for the inspiration stage of the breathing cycle, utilizing a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method to couple structural deformation with airflow dynamics. The spatiotemporal deformation of the structures surrounding the airway wall was predicted and found to be in general agreement with observed changes in luminal opening and the distribution of airflow from upright to supine posture. The third study describes the effects of cancer of the tongue base on tongue motion during swallow. A three-dimensional biomechanical model was developed and used to calculate the spatiotemporal deformation of the tongue under a sequence of movements which simulate the oral stage of swallow.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2018
- Identifier
- CFE0007034, ucf:51986
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007034
