A Critical Review of Techniques Aiming at Enhancing and Sustaining Worker's Alertness during the Night Shift

Abstract

Two types of methods based on a particular principle allow enhancing and sustaining workers' alertness all along their night work. The first one rather consists in arousing workers by exposing them to stimulant environment conditions (light or noise…) or by giving them natural or pharmacological reactivating substances (caffeine or amphetamines…) for example. The second principle consists in increasing workers' possibilities for resting and allowing them to have short sleep periods or Short Rest Periods (SRP) in an adapted area at the workplace. In order to use these techniques in real work situations, after a critical review taking into account both efficiency, advantages and disadvantages but also applicability and acceptability, the SRP technique stands out as the most efficient method as it has a certain number of advantages with regard to our initial objective.