AASM Membership Sections Newsletter Issue #2
14
American Academy
of Sleep Medicine
Sleep Deprivation Section
2012–2013
CHAIR
Melissa Mallis, PhD
VICE-CHAIR
Francine James, PhD
MEMBERS
Mathias Basner, MD, PhD
Abid Malik, MD
Adrienne Tucker, PhD
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine Sleep Deprivation Section
Steering Committee addresses a variety of issues related to sleep loss
including those due to extended wake-times, sleep restriction across days
and disrupted sleep due to environmental conditions and psychiatric
disorders. The committee is comprised of researchers with operational,
experimental and clinical expertise who can provide information on
the consequences and effects of sleep loss on various measures (e.g.,
performance, alertness and psychological) and application of appropri-
ate countermeasures to address the resultant sleepiness and fatigue. The
best way to communicate with the Steering Committee is via email:
AASMsections@aasmnet.org
.
Research Highlights
The Sleep Deprivation Section Investigator Award was awarded to Adri-
enne M. Tucker, PhD during the SLEEP 2012 annual meeting for her work
on “
Individual Differences in Lapses of Attention During Sleep Deprivation
are Stable Across the Biological Night and Subsequent Biological Day.”
As
expected, vulnerability to fatigue comprised three independent domains:
behavioral alertness, information processing capability, and subjective
sleepiness. Within each domain, those individuals more impaired across
the biological night were also more vulnerable across the biological day,
suggesting that those most at risk to the consequences of fatigue across the
night shift are also more at risk across the day shift. Further, those more
impaired during total sleep deprivation were also vulnerable to a night of
Steering Committee
Profiles
Melissa Mallis, PhD (Chair)
is starting her first year as Chair
of the Sleep Deprivation Section.
Dr. Mallis has been a member of
the Sleep Deprivation Steering
Committee since 2008, held the
position of Vice-Chair for a three
year term (2009-2012) and served
as the Acting Chair from January,
2012 –
June, 2012. She is President
and Chief Scientist at M3 Alertness
Management and a fellow at the
George Mason University School
of Law, Center for Infrastructure
Protection and Homeland security.
Her research focuses on sleep loss
and fatigue management in opera-
tional environments in support of
policy and regulatory change. Her
work includes the implementation
and evaluation of scientifically valid
fatigue-management approaches
for managing sleep loss, extended
duty periods and circadian dis-
ruption in aviation operations,
schedule analysis for strengths and
vulnerabilities and the implemen-
tation of comprehensive fatigue
management programs. She
continues to make contributions to
safety, research, and education in
operational environments through
past and current collaborations
primarily with Federal Agencies.
Dr. Mallis earned her BS degree in
Physics from Villanova University
and her PhD in Biomedical Science
Development of SAFE-T: Alertness Management
Education in CMV Operations
The Sleep Deprivation Section Steering Committee recently developed
an educational slide set for commercial motor vehicle drivers (CMV) on
strategies for maximizing alertness and minimizing fatigue. The educa-
tional slide set
focuses on the specific issues faced by commercial motor
vehicle drivers and provides a review of the causes of fatigue and targeted
countermeasures that can help in the management of fatigue. Informa-
tion about sleep disorders, including diagnosis and treatment options,
and healthy sleep habits are also provided. The slide set has been pack-
aged into a narrated PowerPoint slide show and is available for free at
www.aasmnet.org/safet
.
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