Heidi Lammers-van der Holst

• Erasmus MC

Shift work can cause circadian misalignment, which often results in sleeping problems and has been associated with immune dysfunction. To better understand the impact of shift work on a primary immune response to vaccination, we compared severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2)‐specific humoral and cellular immune responses afte...

Background Working at night leads to misalignment between the biological clock and the work/sleep schedule, resulting in sleepiness and impaired performance during the night shift and poor quality, shortened sleep during the day; this is greatly impaired in older individuals. Objective To describe night work and sleep experiences from the perspect...

Background Working during the night interferes with the timing of normal daily activities and is associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases. Under controlled experimental conditions, interventions focusing on sleep and nutrition can mitigate the short-term adverse effects of shift work. However, it is unclear how these results translate...

Introduction This study evaluates the effectiveness and implementation of PerfectFit@Night, an intervention to improve sleep, fatigue and recovery of night workers in healthcare. Methods PerfectFit@Night was implemented at twelve hospital departments that moved from the control to the intervention condition with two questionnaire measurements befo...

Study Objectives To explore the feasibility, effectiveness, and acceptability of an afternoon-evening sleep schedule in older (age 50-65 years) nightshift workers. Methods We used a 3-part strategy: a screening survey to identify individuals who said they could adopt an 8-hour afternoon-evening sleep schedule; a field study where daily diary and a...

Nurses are at a high risk for short sleep duration and poor sleep quality due to irregular work schedules and high occupational stress. Considering the effect of nurses' sleep on the safety and health of themselves and their patients, it is important to promote healthy sleep for nurses. We sought to synthesize the published experimental and quasi‐e...

Introduction Working at night leads to shortened and disturbed daytime sleep. Night workers usually adopt one of several sleep patterns between consecutive nights: sleeping right after night work (morning sleep), delaying sleep to the afternoon (afternoon sleep), or dividing sleep into two or more episodes (split sleep). However, few studies have e...

Working at night can lead to misalignment between the timing of the biological clock and the work/sleep schedule, resulting in sleepiness, inattention, and impaired performance during the night shift and poor quality, shortened sleep during the day. These adverse effects are reported to be worse in older workers due to their decreased ability to sl...

Sleep and circadian rhythms are closely involved in the immune system and its regulation. Here, we describe this relationship and provide recommendations regarding the influence of sleep and circadian rhythms on vaccination success. We review studies investigating how viral susceptibility is influenced by changes in immunological parameters as a co...

This protocol describes an innovative study to investigate the relationship between sleep, shift work and the immune response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) vaccination. As the COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis with devastating health, social and economic impacts, there is a p...

Introduction Sleep deficiency is a severe problem faced by night shift workers. Approximately one-third of night workers report insomnia during daytime sleep and excessive sleepiness during nighttime work; when severe, these symptoms characterize shift work disorder (SWD). Difficulty sustaining 7 to 9 hours of sleep during the daytime is partly due...

Objectives: Rotating shift work is associated with adverse outcomes due to circadian misalignment, sleep curtailment, work-family conflicts, and other factors. We tested a bright light countermeasure to enhance circadian adaptation on a counterclockwise rotation schedule. Methods: Twenty-nine adults (aged 20-40 years; 15 women) participated in a...

Study objectives: The 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) has become a global health and economic crisis. Recent evidence from small samples suggest that it has increased mood and sleep disturbances, including insomnia, around the world. This study aimed to estimate the effect of COVID-19 on insomnia levels worldwide and in the United States durin...

Circadian misalignment remains a distinct challenge for night shift workers. Variability in individual sleep-wake/light-dark patterns might contribute to individual differences in circadian alignment in night shift workers. In this simulation study, we compared the predicted phase shift from a mathematical model of the effect of light on the human...

Introduction Shift work is associated with insufficient and disrupted sleep and impaired quality of life due to misalignment between the timing of internal biological clock and work/sleep schedule. There are reported sex differences in the circadian timing system, in sleep, and in reported sleep complaints, but how these impact female shift workers...

No abstract available. Article truncated after 150 words. Sleep is more important now than ever. Getting enough sleep is a challenge for those who work nights even in the best of times, because our bodies are designed to be at rest during the night and awake and active during the day. Whether you are an experienced shift worker or new to shift work...

The aim of this longitudinal study on novice police officers was to investigate inter-individual differences in sleep response to shift work, and to identify potential baseline predictors thereof. A total of 42 subjects were assessed at baseline, prior to commencing shift work. They were re-assessed during three follow-up sessions within the first...

Cortisol acts as a critical biological intermediary through which chronic stressors like shift work impact upon multiple physiological, neuro-endocrine and hormonal functions. Therefore, the cortisol awakening response (CAR) is suggested as a prime index of shift work tolerance. Repeated assessments of the CAR (calculated as MnInc) in a group of 25...

The aim of this study was to examine how subjective shift work tolerance was related to general health variables, with the expectation of inter-individual differences in the nature of this relation. A total of 740 employees of the Dutch Police force completed a questionnaire, covering seven health-related domains: sleep quality, sleep duration, nee...

This study aimed to examine prospectively whether individual nighttime sleep characteristics at baseline (prior to shift-work exposure) are related to parameters of daytime sleep after commencing shift work. A longitudinal field study was carried out with novice police officers of the Dutch Police Force. A total of 26 subjects were examined at base...