While poor sleep quality has been related to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, long-time shift workers (maritime pilots) did not manifest evidence of early Alzheimer’s disease in a recent study. We explored two hypotheses of possible compensatory mechanisms for sleep disruption. We used data from ten male maritime pilots with a history of approximately 18 years of irregular shift work. Subjective sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). A single lead EEG-device was used to investigate sleep in the home/work environment. Using multilevel models, we studied the sleep architecture of maritime pilots over time, at the transition of a workweek to a rest week. Descriptive analyses and multilevel models were analysed using SPSS and R.

The ANCHOR study