Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This research investigates whether there is any significant relationship between four\ncommonly used measures of sleepiness; the Multiple Sleep Latency test (MSLT), the\nPsychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and the\nKarolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) in a group of healthy alert individuals, and to what\nextent the individual factors of sex, morningness-eveningness disposition and\npersonality variables are related to these measures of sleepiness.\nFifty normal sleepers (26 females, 24 males) aged between 21-40 years of age (mean\nage 25.18 years) volunteered undergo a standard research MSLT. All participants had\nattained 7-8 hours of sleep prior to participation. Between the sleep opportunities they\ncompleted a practice and experimental session of the PVT, the Eysenck Personality\nQuestionnaire (Adult EPQ-R) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory version (STAI\nForm Y). Subjective levels of sleepiness were collected using the KSS before each\nsleep opportunity of the MSLT, and either side of the PVT sessions. The Horne-\nOstberg Morningness-Eveningness disposition questionnaire and ESS scores were\ncollected prior to the testing day.\nThere was no significant correlation between the measures of sleepiness using the\nwhole data set. Relationship between the measures of sleepiness was not improved by\ntime of day. When the data was split by latency on the MSLT, a significant negative\ncorrelation was found between the MSLT and ESS, but only in nine participants. Sex\nof the participant was only significantly related to the ESS. The MSLT was the only\nmeasure of sleepiness found to be significantly related to the\nmorningness/eveningness disposition of the participants. Personality characteristics\nwere not significantly related to the ESS or PVT. A significant positive relationship\nbetween neuroticism score and latency on the MSLT was found when those\nparticipants who did not sleep in the MSLT were excluded from analysis. Scores on\nthe KSS were significantly related to levels of neuroticism, state and trait anxiety and\nscores on the Lie scale of the EPQ.\nIt is concluded that although these measures of sleepiness are commonly used\ntogether, they do not have a significant relationship to each other in a group of healthy\nalert individuals. This suggests that each measure of sleepiness may be measuring a\ndifferent component of the alertness-sleepiness spectrum, therefore no one measure\ncan be relied upon to replace another in the measurement of alertness or sleepiness.\nSome significant relationships between the alertness dimensions of certain measures\nof sleepiness and the individual differences within the participant group have been\nrevealed, yet as no single individual difference measured in this investigation was\nsignificantly related to all of the measures of sleepiness, it is unlikely that these\nparticular individual differences in the participant group are solely responsible for the\ninconsistencies in the alertness dimensions of these measures of sleepiness. Further\ninvestigation is required in order to further establish why there are inconsistencies in\nthe alertness dimensions of these measures of sleepiness.
Author: Katharine Jordan
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2251765194