A New Test of Self-Paced Work Sensitive to the Effects of Prolonged Work and Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

This study evaluated a new test of physical persistence, a wall building task. Volunteers (n=14) built as many 10 × 10 walls as possible using brick-size wooden blocks in 25 min on six different days. Four of the six days were without treatment effects to measure test reliability. Assessment was also done twice during a simulated military sustained operation scenario (SUSOPS) at 48 and 72 hours after SUSOPS initiation. Volunteers were kept busy with military tasks 21–22 hours per day when not being tested. There was a 26% decrement ( p≤0.001) in walls built after 48 hrs of SUSOPS, with intraclass reliability of R = 0.84. The wall building test was demonstrated to be reproducible, easily administered, and is sensitive to the effects of prolonged work and sleep deprivation that occur during SUSOPS. This test would be a useful tool to measure potential interventions used to combat the effects of SUSOPS.