Search Results (58)

Malocclusion can arise due to various causes and may impact not only temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders but also overall systemic health. This study aimed to evaluate the association of individual occlusal characteristics with sleep quality and stress levels in female college students. Occlusal analysis was conducted using T-Scan III on 84 participants (age: 21.7 ± 2.09), while sleep quality and stress levels were assessed using the Korean version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and self-reported stress questionnaires, respectively. Sleep quality was categorized as “good sleeper” (≤5 points) or “poor sleeper” (>5 points). Stress levels were classified as Normal (≤13), Initial stress (14–16), Moderate stress (17–18), or Severe stress (≥19). The results indicated no significant differences in sleep quality based on occlusal characteristics. However, participants with Type A occlusion (posterior contact without anterior contact) exhibited higher stress scores than those with Type B occlusion. Correlation analysis showed a weak negative association between stress scores and occlusion type, but no significant relationship was found between occlusal characteristics, sleep quality, and stress levels. In conclusion, individual occlusal characteristics have limited explanatory power regarding their effects on sleep quality and stress. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sleep disorders (SDs) and Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) have been reported with high prevalence in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but data on Pediatric-Onset MS (POMS) are scarce. This study aims to assess the prevalence of SDs, particularly RLS, in a POMS cohort and examine associated clinical features. Methods: We recruited POMS patients who attended the POMS Center of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital between September 2021 and February 2023; they were evaluated for SDs using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) or the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) and screened for RLS. Correlations with demographical, clinical, neuroradiological, and laboratory findings were analyzed. Results: We recruited 44 POMS patients, of whom 39% were classified as “good sleepers” and 61% were identified as “poor sleepers.” RLS was diagnosed in 10 patients (22.7%). Those with RLS were older and had higher Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) scores compared to non-RLS patients (p = 0.028; p = 0.03). The presence of RLS did not show any significant correlation with MRI lesion load or laboratory data. Conclusions: Our findings suggest an increased rate of SDs and RLS in pediatric MS patients compared to the general pediatric population. Clinical data could support a secondary form of RLS in this population, but results need further confirmation. Full article

Introduction/Aim: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) challenges glycemic control, with sleep disturbances affecting insulin sensitivity and glucose variability. This study aimed to observe sleep quality in T1D patients and glycemic outcomes, particularly at bedtime hours. Methods: This retrospective observational study, conducted at an Italian clinical center, included T1D patients using Medtronic devices. Sleep quality was assessed using the Italian version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and glycemic outcomes were analyzed with CGM data. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests were applied for statistical comparisons. Results: Of 45 patients, four were excluded, leaving 41 for analysis. The mean PSQI score was 6.0 ± 4.1, with 36.6% showing poor sleep quality. No significant differences in age, sex, BMI, or diabetes duration were found. Poor sleepers had a higher time above range level 2 (TAR2) (6.3 ± 6.2%) compared to good sleepers (4.1 ± 5.0%). During bedtime hours, poor sleepers showed a significantly higher TAR2 (6.7 ± 7.2% vs. 3.3 ± 6.2%, p = 0.013). Conclusions: Poor sleep quality is associated with increased nocturnal hyperglycemia in T1D patients. Enhancing sleep quality may contribute to improved glycemic control, particularly during nighttime. Future research should explore targeted sleep interventions in diabetes care, and specific lifestyle-based healthcare programs are recommended to optimize glycemic outcomes. Full article

The COVID-19 outbreak has changed work organization in favor of a working from home (WH) modality. We examined the association of WH during the pandemic with sleep health in workers of a public research organization. An online cross-sectional survey in 2022 at the National Research Council of Italy collected information on sociodemographics, work characteristics, and sleep pattern during WH compared with before WH. In the whole sample (n = 748), total sleep quality did not significantly change. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) decreased during WH. Total sleep quality increased during WH in poor sleepers, while it decreased in good sleepers. The morning chronotype was protective against sleep worsening in poor sleepers. Risk factors were depression in poor and good sleepers, and increased daytime sleepiness and body weight gain in good sleepers. These findings emphasize the importance of baseline sleep pattern in shaping the impact of WH on sleep. Full article

Objectives: To assess the associations of sedentary behavior (SB) with sleep quality and duration in pregnant women by trimesters and to consider SB domains and patterns. Methods: This investigation included 935 participants (age = 30.0 ± 5.6 years; first trimester = 24.1%, second trimester = 33.9%, third trimester = 42.0%). The total, domains (leisure, occupational, commuting), and patterns (weekdays, weekends) of SB, as well as sleep quality and duration, were self-reported. Adjusted logistic regression models examined the associations of different SBs with the risk of poor sleep quality, not adhering to sleep duration guidelines (7–9 h/day), or being a short- or long-sleeper. Results: The odds of poor sleep quality were significantly higher by 14.2% and 7.4% for each hour increase in total and leisure SB on weekends, respectively. The odds of not adhering to sleep duration guidelines were significantly higher by 5.5% and 11.4% for each hour increase in total and leisure SB during weekdays, respectively; paradoxically, the odds of not complying with the sleep duration guidelines were significantly lower, ranging between 6.6% and 34.4% for each hour increase in total, leisure, or commuting SB on weekends. Further, when analyzed separately, the likelihood of being a short- or long-sleeper was highly variable across SB domains, with associations being more apparent in the first and third trimesters. Conclusions: The relationship between SB and healthy sleep during pregnancy was complex. These variable findings underscore the importance of considering domains and patterns of SB beyond simple total durations in future research to inform interventions and guidelines to improve sleep health during pregnancy. Full article

Background/Objectives: An acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a cardiovascular emergency with high mortality rates if left untreated. Survival has increased due to improvements in diagnosis and therapy. However, during their recovery, survivors frequently encounter major social, psychological, and physical challenges. This study aimed to evaluate the recovery experience of AAD survivors in The Netherlands. Insights on sleep quality, physical activity, and quality of life were collected from a unique nationwide cohort of AAD survivors recruited through the national patient support network ‘Stichting Aorta Dissectie Nederland’. Methods: This study was conducted among AAD survivors who were recruited through a national association for aortic dissection known as ‘Stichting Aorta Dissectie Nederland (SADN)’. The participants (n = 61) completed questionnaires assessing demographic data, physical activity, sleep quality, and health-related QoL. Results: The cohort had a mean age of 60.1 years, and 47.5% of the participants were female. The prevalence of sleep disruptions was high, as 55.7% of the people were categorized as bad sleepers (PSQI > 5). Poor sleep was associated with low physical activity and a higher BMI. The physical activity levels varied, with 47.5% reporting moderate activity levels and 44.3% reporting high activity levels. The QoL scores varied greatly among the participants, with significant impairment across all fields and reduced enthusiasm for daily activities. Poor sleepers reported significantly lower QoL (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study highlights significant gaps in post-AAD care, particularly addressing QoL, sleep, and physical activity. By acknowledging the multifaceted nature of recovery, healthcare providers can develop tailored interventions that empower survivors to achieve better quality of life. Full article

Background: Sleep and mental health are crucial to elite youth athletes, who face combined pressures of training, competition, school, and social commitments. We examined the association between sleep and depression in elite youth athletes. Methods: We analyzed data of 248 Korean world-class youth athletes (aged 13–19 years). The athletes completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Results: Overall, 50.4% of the athletes were considered poor sleepers (global PSQI score ≥ 5.5); 23.8% reported depressive symptoms (CES-D score ≥ 16). Depression was 4.26 times (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.00–9.09, p < 0.001) more likely in poor than in good sleepers. Odds of depression were increased with poor subjective sleep quality (odds ratio [OR]: 4.62; 95%CI, 2.10–10.18, p < 0.001), prolonged sleep latency (OR: 2.45: 95% CI, 1.28–4.69, p < 0.01), increased sleep disturbances (OR: 3.98: 95% CI, 1.83–8.63, p < 0.001), and daytime dysfunction (OR: 3.28; 95% CI, 1.67–6.44, p < 0.001). Depressive symptoms were associated with worse sleep, particularly poor subjective sleep quality, prolonged sleep latency, increased sleep disturbances, and increased daytime dysfunction. Conclusions: These results suggest that depressive symptoms are associated with poor sleep in the elite youth athlete population. Full article

Background/Objectives: To examine the combined effects of sleep quality, dual tasks, and load carriage on postural stability. Methods: Twenty-three university student participants (12 males, ages: 24.6 ± 6.1 year) completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), then performed quiet standing and a dual task while standing on force plates with and without load carriage. Correlations and repeated measures analysis of variances were used to assess relationships, main effects, and interaction effects of tasks on center of pressure (COP) to assess postural stability. Both a traditional PSQI global score and a sensitivity analysis of the PSQI cut-off were conducted. Results: With the traditional PSQI criteria, a main effect of sleep quality on 95% ellipse area was observed, with good sleepers outperforming bad sleepers (p = 0.016). Additionally, a significant interaction between sleep quality and task (p = 0.049) indicated that COP anterior–posterior velocity was lower during the dual task for good sleepers. No effects on sleep quality or interaction were found for other COP measures. The sensitivity analysis yielded no effect on sleep quality or interaction effects on any COP measure. There were no significant correlations between the PSQI global scores and COP variables. Conclusions: Overall, the results indicate that sleep quality alone had a limited effect and did not significantly interact with dual tasks or load carriage during quiet standing. Practitioners working with individuals who commonly experience poor sleep quality and perform load carriage and dual tasks should consider that common COP screens to assess postural stability may not detect differences due to self-reported sleep quality in healthy, young adults. Full article

Background: Adolescent overweight and obesity are a public health problem with an epidemic trend. There is growing evidence that sleep quality correlates to body weight. The aim of this study was to investigate, sleep quality in adolescents with obesity/overweight. Methods: A total of 100 adolescents with overweight/obesity aged 12–18 years were enrolled. Anthropometric parameters were recorded and a laboratory investigation in the fasting state [glucose, insulin, cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL), triglycerides, uric acid and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c)] was performed. Insulin resistance was calculated by the Homeostasis Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance index (HOMA-IR). Sleep quality was assessed with the Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS) questionnaire. Results: According to ASHS, 93% of the participants were classified as “Good Sleepers” (GSs) (score > 3.8) and 7% as “Poor Sleepers” (PSs) (score < 3.8). PSs had a statistically higher body mass index (BMI) compared to GSs (p = 0.026). Increased body mass index (BMI) (r = −0.306, p = 0.002), fast insulin (r = −0.224, p = 0.027), and HOMA-IR (r = −0.260, p = 0.010) exerted a negative effect on sleep quality. Controlling for lipids and uric acid, only TC levels appeared to have a statistically significant and specifically positive correlation with the ASHS score (r = 0.202, p = 0.045). HbA1c values and waist circumference tended to be negatively correlated, but not significant to adolescent sleep quality [(r = −0.101, p = 0.330), (r = −0.095, p = 0.359), respectively]. The influence of central obesity on the ASHS score was also explored, but no correlation was found (p = 0.566). Conclusions: Sleep quality, as reflected by the ASHS score, was associated negatively with BMI, fasting insulin levels, and insulin resistance. Furthermore, a gender difference was observed, as adolescent males were found to achieve a higher overall ASHS score compared to females. Full article

Decreased sleep quality and duration is associated with an array of negative health outcomes. Evidence suggests athletes are susceptible to sleep inadequacies that may in turn affect their health and dietary behaviours. This study aimed to explore the sleep profile of both male and female Gaelic games players, at an elite and sub-elite level and compare how poor sleep relates to subjective health complaints and food cravings. One hundred and seventy Gaelic games players completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Subjective Health Complaints Inventory (SHC) and Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait-Reduced (FCQ-T-r). Participants were categorised into two groups: poor sleepers (PSQI ≥ 5) and good sleepers (PSQI < 5). Outcome measures of health and food cravings were analysed across the groups, Mann–Whitney U tests were used to assess differences, and Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used to determine relationships between variables. Sixty-seven % of athletes were categorised as poor sleepers. There were no significant differences in PSQI scores across genders (p = 0.088) or playing level (p = 0.072). Poor sleepers experienced significantly increased SHC (p < 0.001) and female athletes had significantly more SHC compared to males (p < 0.001). Female athletes experienced more food cravings than males (p = 0.013). However, there were no significant differences in food cravings between good and poor sleepers (p = 0.104). The findings suggest a high prevalence of poor sleepers amongst GAA athletes. Furthermore, a significant relationship exists between poor sleep and health complaints with females at a higher risk of worsened health complaints and higher food cravings. Sleep screening and education interventions to enhance sleep in GAA athletes are advocated. Full article

A sleeper, or more generally a “bearer”, moves vertically under a passing train load. The extent of this motion depends on the static and dynamic load of the train, the train speed, and the support conditions at the bearer and its neighbours. Excessive motion, typically from voiding see-sawing, low support stiffness or possibly excessive stiffness, or even too little stiffness, are all of interest to maintainers. Typically, problems arise around transition zones, switches and crossings, but plain track with poor support can also be a problem. Within the last decade, low-cost micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) accelerometers have been used to capture the time history of vertical motion for use in condition monitoring. Existing condition monitoring systems often overlook or sometimes even ignore the possibility of problematic data, which seem to be common in monitored locations. It is essential to understand whether such “bad” data require further attention. Three problematic sites are presented, focussing on examples where the acceleration was higher than expected or the computed displacement was not as expected. Potential causes include wheel defects, hammering of the ballast by a hanging bearer, or high acceleration at some structural resonant frequency. The present paper aims to show the challenges of using MEMS accelerometers to collect data for condition monitoring and offers insights into the sort of problematic data that may be collected from real sites. Full article

Understanding and classifying brain states as a function of sleep quality and age has important implications for developing lifestyle-based interventions involving sleep hygiene. Current studies use an algorithm that captures non-linear features of brain complexity to differentiate awake electroencephalography (EEG) states, as a function of age and sleep quality. Fifty-eight participants were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory (PSQI) and awake resting state EEG. Groups were formed based on age and sleep quality (younger adults n = 24, mean age = 24.7 years, SD = 3.43, good sleepers n = 11; older adults n = 34, mean age = 72.87; SD = 4.18, good sleepers n = 9). Ten non-linear features were extracted from multiband EEG analysis to feed several classifiers followed by a leave-one-out cross-validation. Brain state complexity accurately predicted (i) age in good sleepers, with 75% mean accuracy (across all channels) for lower frequencies (alpha, theta, and delta) and 95% accuracy at specific channels (temporal, parietal); and (ii) sleep quality in older groups with moderate accuracy (70 and 72%) across sub-bands with some regions showing greater differences. It also differentiated younger good sleepers from older poor sleepers with 85% mean accuracy across all sub-bands, and 92% at specific channels. Lower accuracy levels (<50%) were achieved in predicting sleep quality in younger adults. The algorithm discriminated older vs. younger groups excellently and could be used to explore intragroup differences in older adults to predict sleep intervention efficiency depending on their brain complexity. Full article

Concrete sleepers in operation are commonly damaged by various internal and external factors, such as poor materials, manufacturing defects, poor construction, environmental factors, and repeated loads and driving characteristics of trains; these factors affect the vibration response, mode shape, and natural frequency of damaged concrete sleepers. However, current standards in South Korea require only a subjective visual inspection of concrete sleepers to determine the damage degree and necessity of repair or replacement. In this study, an impact hammer test was performed on concrete sleepers installed on the operating lines of urban railroads to assess the field applicability of the modal test method, with the results indicating that the natural frequency due to concrete sleeper damage was lower than that of the undamaged state. Furthermore, the discrepancy between the simulated and measured natural frequencies of the undamaged concrete sleeper was approximately 1.87%, validating the numerical analysis result. The natural frequency of the damaged concrete sleepers was lower than that of the undamaged concrete sleeper, and cracks in both the concrete sleeper core and the rail seat had the lowest natural frequency among all the damage categories. Therefore, the damage degrees of concrete sleepers can be quantitatively estimated using measured natural-frequency values. Full article

The amount of freight transported by rail and the number of passengers are increasing year by year. Any disruption to the passenger or freight transport stream can generate both financial and human losses. Such a disruption can be caused by the rail infrastructure being in poor condition. For this reason, the state of the infrastructure should be monitored periodically. One of the important elements of railroad infrastructure is the ballast. Its condition has a significant impact on the safety of rail traffic. The unevenness of the ballast surface is one of the indicators of its condition. For this reason, a regulation was introduced by Polish railway lines specifying the maximum threshold of ballast unevenness. This article presents an algorithm that allows for the detection of irregularities in the ballast. These irregularities are determined relative to the surface of the sleepers. The images used by the algorithm were captured by a laser triangulation system placed on a rail inspection vehicle managed by the Polish railway lines. The proposed solution has the following elements of novelty: (a) it presents a simple criterion for evaluating the condition of the ballast based on the measurement of its unevenness in relation to the level of the sleeper; (b) it treats ballast irregularity detection as an instance segmentation process and it compares two segmentation algorithms, Mask R-CNN and YOLACT, in terms of their application to ballast irregularity detection; and (c) it uses segmentation-related metrics—mAP (Mean Average Precision), IoU (Intersection over Union) and Pixel Accuracy—to evaluate the quality of the detection of ballast irregularity. Full article

This study aimed to explore the effect of long-term (≥1 year) sleep quality on coronary lesion complexity and cardiovascular prognosis in young acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. We consecutively recruited young patients aged from 18 to 44 years old with first-episode ACS and significant epicardial stenosis on coronary angiography from January 2016 to January 2017. Coronary lesion complexity was evaluated based on SYNTAX scores. Long-term sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) (PSQI ≤ 5 and PSQI > 5 groups). The primary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs). A total of 466 young ACS patients (93.13% male; median age, 41 years) were included. Poor sleepers (PSQI > 5) had higher SYNTAX scores. After adjusting for confounders, PSQI scores (continuous variables, OR: 1.264; 95%CI: 1.166–1.371; p < 0.001) and PSQI grade (binary variable, OR: 3.864; 95%CI: 2.313–6.394; p = 0.001) were significantly associated with an increased risk of complex coronary lesions. During a median follow-up of 74 months, long-term poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5) was significantly associated with an increased risk of MACEs (HR: 4.266; 95%CI: 2.274–8.001; p < 0.001). Long-term poor sleep quality was a risk factor for complex coronary lesions and has adverse effects on cardiovascular prognosis in the young ACS population. Full article