Sleep Quality Changes during Overwintering at the German Antarctic Stations Neumayer II and III: The Gender Factor

• Main Authors: Mathias Steinach, Eberhard Kohlberg, Martina Anna Maggioni, Stefan Mendt, Oliver Opatz, Alexander Stahn, Hanns-Christian Gunga
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Subjects: Antarctic; Neumayer; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150099; https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150099&type=printable

Purpose: Antarctic residence holds many challenges to human physiology, like increased psycho-social tension and altered circadian rhythm, known to influence sleep. We assessed changes in sleep patterns during 13 months of overwintering at the German Stations Neumayer II and III from 2008 to 2014, with focus on gender, as many previous investigations were inconclusive regarding gender-based differences or had only included men. Materials & Methods: Time in bed, sleep time, sleep efficiency, number of arousals, sleep latency, sleep onset, sleep offset, and physical activity level were determined twice per month during seven overwintering campaigns of n = 54 participants (37 male, 17 female) using actimetry. Data were analyzed using polynomial regression and analysis of covariance for change over time with the covariates gender, inhabited station, overwintering season and influence of physical activity and local sunshine radiation. Results: We found overall longer times in bed (p = 0.004) and sleep time (p = 0.014) for women. The covariate gender had a significant influence on time in bed (p