| Research Abstract |
In order to clarify the adaptation process to shift-work, a 172 item questionnaire, related to chronic fatigue, sleep problems, and menstrual signs and symptoms, was distributed to the employees at Toho University Hospitals, 756 nurses and 113 female staff, who were as the control group.
The subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 59, were divided into seven groups based on their shift-work experiences : under 1 year, 1 to 3, 3 to 5, 5 to 7, 7 to 10 10 to 15, and over 15 years. Nurses complained the mental fatigue, but the control group did mainly the physical fatigue. Nurses expressed more cumulative fatigue than did the control group due to shift-work and long working hours.
As years of shift-work experiences increased, sleep problems gradually accelerated until 7 years, then decreased gradually. However, nurses who experienced 7 to 10 years and held a chief nurse position, showed more fatigue and problems of sleep.
The top three complaints reported by both groups during the menstrual period were the lower abdominal pain lumbago and sleepiness. Menstrual problems among nurses were in-creased gradually up to 7 years. The nurses, daily lives were more affected by menses compared with the control group.
Among 813 responders to our survey, 24 volunteers, 18 nurses and 6 female staff,ranging in age from 21 to 40, were monitored their sleep architectures for 2 consecutive nights by the polysomnographical technique. Nurses had significant less slow wave sleep(SWS) than the control group had. The nurses who had longer experiences with shift-work de-creased their SWS. There was a transient and atypical sleep disturbed state found in those who are in the adaptation process of their shift-work. Chronobiological survey will be reported later.
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