Sleep Quality And Its Effect On The Performance In Truck Drivers Of The Army On Gobi Desert

Object: The present survey is conducted to investigate the sleep quality and its influencing factors in truck driver in the army on Gobi Desert, and to study the effect of sleep quality on performance ability. Methods: The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is administrated to 700 truck drivers in the army on Gobi Desert by the method of random cluster sampling. The general items include name, age, height, weight, married or not, only child or not, education background, family address, addicted drinking, smoking, and tea or not, driving kilometers,and so on. Then according to the results of PSQI, 83 cases of poor sleep quality (trial group) and 83 cases of normal sleep quality (control group) are randomly chosen and their performances are evaluated by three tests, which is number cancellation test, recognition test, and digital span test.Results:1 The samples of poor sleep quality(PSQI>7)of the 681 utility questionnaires in our group are 166, a significant weaker than those of the popular group.2 Daytime dysfunction and subjective sleep quality are the main problems of sleep quality in our group (1.45±0.95, 1.04±0.74). The main influencing factors of sleep disturbance involve difficult to sleep, easily or early to awaken, and hot feeling in sleep.3 The scores of PSQI and some components increase with the prolongation of service years in our group. The score in the group of less than 2 service years is lower than those of between 2~4 years or more than 4 service years. The service years is closely related with daytime dysfunction.4 The samples in the group which driving kilometers less than 5000 km or more than 20000 km get a high score of PSQI. The driving kilometers is closely related with sleep latency.5 The officer drivers have a high PSQI in different military rank (5.34±2.67). The military rank is closely related with sleep duration and PSQI.6 Compared to the married, the scores of sleep disturbance, daytime dysfunction and PSQI are significantly decreased in the unmarried. The marital status is closely related with daytime dysfunction.7 Compared to the addicted to smoking, drinking wine or liquor, and drinking tea, the scores of PSQI and most components are lower than in those of no addicted. Smoking, drinking wine or liquor, and drinking tea are closely related with PSQI and all component scores but sleep latency and used sleep medication.8 The drivers who came from countryside tend to a lower score of daytime dysfunction than those from town. The family address is closely related with daytime dysfunction.9 In the performance ability tests, the score of trial group significantly decrease to the control group(147.6±22.5 vs 155.9±28.7,P<0.05) in number cancellation test,and there is no significant difference in the score of recognition test and the digital span test.Conclusion:1 The sleep quality of the truck driver in the army on Gobi Desert has its own characteristics. Feeling hot perhaps relate to the special climate in Gobi Desert.2 The related factors of sleep quality are smoking, drinking wine or liquor, military ranks and drinking tea in turns.3 The poor sleep quality tends to poor performance in truck drivers of the army on Gobi Desert which demonstrated that sleep quality exert an impact on the subjects alertness.