Showing papers by "Mathias Basner published in 2007"

American time use survey: sleep time and its relationship to waking activities.

Abstract: Study Objectives: To gain some insight into how various behavioral (lifestyle) factors influence sleep duration, by investigation of the relationship of sleep time to waking activities using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS)

An ECG-based Algorithm for the Automatic Identification of Autonomic Activations Associated with Cortical Arousal

Abstract: Objectives: EEG arousals are associated with autonomic activations. Visual EEG arousal scoring is time consuming and suffers from low interob-server agreement. We hypothesized that information on changes in heart rate alone suffice to predict the occurrence of cortical arousal. Methods: Two visual AASM EEG arousal scorings of 56 healthy subject nights (mean age 37.0 ± 12.8 years, 26 male) were obtained. For each of 5 heartbeats following the onset of 3581 consensus EEG arousals and of an equal number of control conditions, differences to a moving median were calculated and used to estimate likelihood ratios (LRs) for 10 categories of heartbeat differences. Comparable to 5 consecutive diagnostic tests, these LRs were used to calculate the probability of heart rate responses being associated with cortical arousals. Results: EEG and ECG arousal indexes agreed well across a wide range of decision thresholds, resulting in a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) with an area under the curve of 0.91. For the decision threshold chosen for the final analyses, a sensitivity of 68.1% and a specificity of 95.2% were obtained. ECG and EEG arousal indexes were poorly correlated (r = 0.19, P <0.001, ICC = 0.186), which could in part be attributed to 3 outliers. The Bland-Altman plot showed an unbiased estimation of EEG arousal indexes by ECG arousal indexes with a standard deviation of ± 7.9 arousals per hour sleep. In about two-thirds of all cases, ECG arousal scoring was matched by at least one (22.2%) or by both (42.5%) of the visual scorings. Sensitivity of the algorithm increased with increasing duration of EEG arousals. The ECG algorithm was also successfully validated with 30 different nights of 10 subjects (mean age 35.3 □ 13.6 years, 5 male). Conclusions: In its current version, the ECG algorithm cannot replace visual EEG arousal scoring. Sensitivity for detecting <10-s EEG arousals needs to be improved. However, in a nonclinical population, it may be valuable to supplement visual EEG arousal scoring by this automatic, objective, reproducible, cheap, and time-saving method.

American time use survey : Sleep time and its relationship to waking activities. Commentary

Abstract: Study Objectives: To gain some insight into how various behavioral (life-style) factors influence sleep duration, by investigation of the relationship of sleep time to waking activities using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). Design: Cross-sectional data from ATUS, an annual telephone survey of a population sample of US citizens who are interviewed regarding how they spent their time during a 24-hour period between 04:00 on the previous day and 04:00 on the interview day. Participants: Data were pooled from the 2003, 2004, and 2005 ATUS databases involving N=47,731 respondents older than 14 years of age. Interventions: N/A Results: Adjusted multiple linear regression models showed that the largest reciprocal relationship to sleep was found for work time, followed by travel time, which included commute time. Only shorter than average sleepers (<7.5 h) spent more time socializing, relaxing, and engaging in leisure activities, while both short (<5.5 h) and long sleepers (≥8.5 h) watched more TV than the average sleeper. The extent to which sleep time was exchanged for waking activities was also shown to depend on age and gender. Sleep time was minimal while work time was maximal in the age group 45-54 yr, and sleep time increased both with lower and higher age. Conclusions: Work time, travel time, and time for socializing, relaxing, and leisure are the primary activities reciprocally related to sleep time among Americans. These activities may be confounding the frequently observed association between short and long sleep on one hand and morbidity and mortality on the other hand and should be controlled for in future studies.

Schlafphysiologische Bewertung nächtlicher Flugbetriebsbeschränkungen vor dem Hintergrund aktueller Urteile des Bundesverwaltungsgerichts

Abstract: Nachtflugverbote haben fur Konzepte zum Schutz der Bevolkerung vor den Folgen nachtlichen Fluglarms an Bedeutung gewonnen, seitdem das Bundesverwaltungsgericht im Jahre 2006 der planfeststellenden Behorde im Fall Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg lnternational (BBI) die beantragte, bis auf wenige Ausnahmen uneingeschrankte Betriebserlaubnis in der Nacht versagt hat und im Fall Flughafen Leipzig/Halle (FLH) zwar den nachtlichen Verkehr des Express-Fracht-Kreuzes billigte, im Ubrigen aber wie bei BBI eine erneute Abwagung der Zulassung nachtlichen Flugverkehrs verlangte. Das hohere passive Schallschutzniveau des DLR-Konzepts im Vergleich zu anderen Schutzkonzepten spielte im Fall Leipzig/Halle fur das Bundesverwaltungsgericht keine entscheidende Rolle. Anhand subjektiver Daten zu Bettzeiten und objektiver Daten zum Schlafverhalten werden mogliche Folgen der durch das Bundesverwaltungsgericht vorgenommenen Dreiteilung der Nacht in Kernruhezeit (0:00 bis 5:00 Uhr), Nachtrandstunden (22:00 bis 0:00 Uhr und 5:00 bis 6:00 Uhr) und Tagesstunden fur den Schutz des Schlafs diskutiert. Die Autoren kommen zu dem Schluss, dass aus schlafphysiologischer Sicht (1) die Tagesrandstunden keineswegs als unproblematisch eingestuft werden durfen, insbesondere fur die nicht erwachsene Bevolkerung und bei Flughafen mit relevantem Verkehrsaufkommen in dieser Zeitperiode, (2) dass es deshalb bei derzeitigem Kenntnisstand unklar ist bzw. einer Einzelfallprufung unterliegt, ob eine Kernruhezeit einem kontingentierten, aber zeitlich unbeschrankten Flugbetrieb in der Nacht tatsachlich vorzuziehen ist, und dass (3) die Gleichstellung der fur BBI und FLH aufgestellten Schutzkonzepte hinsichtlich ihrer grundsatzlichen Eignung zur Abwehr unzumutbarer Belastungen durch das Bundesverwaltungsgericht wahrscheinlich dazu fuhren wird, dass bevorzugt das Schutzkonzept mit dem geringeren Schutzniveau Anwendung findet, was aus schlafphysiologischer Sicht nicht unbedenklich ist.