The effect of mental work load on personals’ sleep quality and reaction time, on the hospitals’ laboratories of Isfahan

Resumen

Introduction: When people do mental activity for a longtime, they will often see cognitive fatigue, reflected in deterioratedtask function and decreased motivation to continueto work to do it. The present study aims to investigatethe effect of mental fatigue and workload on sleep qualityand reaction time in hospital laboratories staff in Isfahan.Method and material: Eighty personals of four hospitals’laboratories in Isfahan participated in this study. Theend points and their predictors were measured at the beginningand at the end of the shifts. Mental fatigue, sleepquality, reaction time, Mental workload and attentionwere measured by Flicker perception equipment, Pittsburghquestionnaire, reaction timer equipment, NASATLX online questionnaire, and CPT program respectively.Paired sample t test and linear regression was applied tothe data using SPSS 20.Results: Sleep quality had highest correlation with reactiontime. Linear regression results showed gender wasthe most effective factor on the sleep quality (P value<0.004).Education and attention were significant predictorsof reaction time. Paired sample t test results showedmean number of errors and omission errors were statisticallydifferent between beginning and at the end of theshift work (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Most of the laboratory personals were femalewho had low sleep quality and high reaction time.Commission error could affect reaction time, by decreasingthe commission error reaction time decreased. Thereaction time could be also affected by education.