Abstract
Control room operators in a nuclear power plant participated in this on-site study to test the belief that keeping busy helps sustain alertness. Since circadian rhythms strongly affect alertness, the study was designed to account for different times of the 24-hour day. The participating reactor operators worked rotating 8-hour shifts in the control room. Every 20minutes they reported their alertness and their workload during the preceding period. These ratings were obtained throughout three of each shift, for a total of nine shifts and 560 pairs of ratings. Reduced alertness ratings (2 and 3 on the 9-point alertness scale) occurred only during the early morning hours. For these hours, results indicated a significant positive relationship between alertness and workload, with lower alertness ratings tending to occur following 20minutes of low workload.
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