ORCID Profile
0000-0001-8218-2626
Current Organisation
RMIT University
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Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 03-03-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.03.03.974667
Abstract: Sleep inertia is the potentially harmful decline in cognition that occurs upon and following awakening. Sound has been shown to counteract the negative symptoms of sleep inertia, with a recent study revealing that an alarm perceived as melodic by participants displayed a significant relationship to reports of reductions in perceived sleep inertia. This current research builds on these findings by specifically testing the effect melodic and rhythmic stimuli exhibit on sleep inertia for subjects awakening in their habitual environments. Two test Groups (A & B N = 10 equally) completed an online psychomotor experiment and questionnaire in two separate test sessions immediately following awakening from nocturnal sleep epochs. Both groups responded to a Control stimulus in the first session, while in the second session, Group A experienced a Melodic treatment, and Group B the Rhythmic. The results show that the melodic treatment significantly decreased attentional Lapses, False Starts and had a significantly improved PVT Performance Score than the Control. There was no significant result for Reaction Time or Response Speed. Additionally, no significant difference was observed for all PVT metrics between the Control – Rhythmic conditions. The results support melodies potential to counteract symptoms of sleep inertia by the observed increase in participant vigilance following waking. Specifically, a melodically rhythmic contour is highlighted as a significant musical treatment noteworthy of consideration when designing alarm compositions for the reduction of sleep inertia. As auditory assisted awakening is a common within modern society, improvements in alarm sound design may have advantages in domestic and commercial settings.
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 12-04-2019
DOI: 10.1101/607358
Abstract: Sleep inertia is a potentially dangerous reduction in human alertness and occurs 0 – 4 hours after waking. The type of sound people set as their alarm for waking has been shown to reduce the effects of sleep inertia, however, the elemental musical factors that underpin these waking sounds and their relationship remain unclear. The goal of this research is to understand how a particular sound or music chosen to assist waking may counteract sleep inertia, and more specifically, what elements of these sounds may contribute to its reduction using a mix methods analysis. Through an anonymous, self-report online questionnaire, fifty participants ( N = 50 ) reported attributes of their preferred waking sound, their feeling towards the waking sound, and symptoms of sleep inertia after waking. This data enabled the analysis and comparison between these responses to define statistically significant interactions. Our results show that there is no significant relationship between sleep inertia and the reported waking sound, nor the subject’s feeling towards this sound. However, we found that the melodicity of a chosen waking sound does effect sleep inertia. A sound that is perceived as melodic, produces less sleep inertia in comparison to a sound considered to be neutral (neither unmelodic nor melodic). Furthermore, a secondary analysis reveals that this is an important factor for waking stimulus design as it suggests that the amount of perceived rhythm will affect the perception of melody, and in turn, may influence the severity of sleep inertia on a secondary level. Our results reveal that the inclusion of detailed descriptive terms (musical elements) in addition to macro classifications (e.g. “pop music”) for stimulus testing would benefit future research and our understanding of waking audio’s effects on sleep inertia.
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 29-05-2020
DOI: 10.3390/CLOCKSSLEEP2020017
Abstract: Sleep inertia is a decline in cognition one may experience upon and following awakening. A recent study revealed that an alarm sound perceived as melodic by participants displayed a significant relationship to reports of reductions in perceived sleep inertia. This current research builds on these findings by testing the effect melody and rhythm exhibit on sleep inertia for subjects awakening in their habitual environments. Two test Groups (A and B N = 10 each) completed an online psychomotor experiment and questionnaire in two separate test sessions immediately following awakening from nocturnal sleep. Both groups responded to a control stimulus in the first session, while in the second session, Group A experienced a melodic treatment, and Group B a rhythmic treatment. The results show that the melodic treatment significantly decreased attentional lapses, false starts, and had a significantly improved psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) performance score than the control. There was no significant result for reaction time or response speed. Additionally, no significant difference was observed for all PVT metrics between the control–rhythmic conditions. The results from this analysis support melodies’ potential to counteract symptoms of sleep inertia by the observed increase in participant vigilance following waking from nocturnal sleep.
Publisher: Brill
Date: 08-12-2021
DOI: 10.1163/22134913-BJA10031
Abstract: The field of bioaesthetics seeks to understand how modern humans may have first developed art appreciation and is informed by considering a broad range of fields including painting, sculpture, music and the built environment. In recent times there has been a erse range of art and communication media representing bees, and such work is often linked to growing concerns about potential bee declines due to a variety of factors including natural habitat fragmentation, climate change, and pesticide use in agriculture. We take a broad view of human art representations of bees to ask if the current interest in artistic representations of bees is evidenced throughout history, and in different regions of the world prior to globalisation. We observe from the earliest records of human representations in cave art over 8,000 years old through to ancient Egyptian carvings of bees and hieroglyphics, that humans have had a long-term relationship with bees especially due to the benefits of honey, wax, and crop pollination. The relationship between humans and bees frequently links to religious and spiritual representations in different parts of the world from Australia to Europe, South America and Asia. Art mediums have frequently included the visual and musical, thus showing evidence of being deeply rooted in how different people around the world perceive and relate to bees in nature through creative practice. In modern times, artistic representations extend to installation arts, mixed-media, and the moving image. Through the examination of the erse inclusion of bees in human culture and art, we show that there are links between the functional benefits of associating with bees, including sourcing sweet-tasting nutritious food that could have acted, we suggest, to condition positive responses in the brain, leading to the development of an aesthetic appreciation of work representing bees.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 28-01-2020
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 20-10-2020
DOI: 10.3390/CLOCKSSLEEP2040031
Abstract: Sleep inertia is a measurable decline in cognition some people experience upon and following awakening. However, a systematic review of the current up to date evidence of audio as a countermeasure has yet to be reported. Thus, to amend this gap in knowledge, the authors conducted this systematic review beginning with searches in three primary databases for studies published between the inception date of each journal and the year 2020. Search terms contained “Sleep Inertia” paired with: “Sound” “Noise” “Music” “Alarm” “Alarm Tone” “Alarm Sound” “Alarm Noise” “Alarm Music” “Alarm Clock” “Fire Alarm”, and “Smoke Alarm”. From 341 study results, twelve were identified for inclusion against a priori conditions. A structured narrative synthesis approach generated three key auditory stimulus themes-(i) Noise, (ii) Emergency tone sequences Voice Alarms and Hybrids, and (iii) Music. Across themes, participants have been assessed in two situational categories: emergency, and non-emergency awakenings. The results indicate that for children awakening in emergency conditions, a low pitch alarm or voice warnings appear to be more effective in counteracting the effects of sleep inertia than alarms with higher frequencies. For adults abruptly awakened, there is insufficient evidence to support firm conclusions regarding alarm types and voice signals. Positive results have been found in non-emergency awakenings for musical treatments in adults who preferred popular music, and alarms with melodic qualities. The results observed reflect the potential for sound, voice, and musical treatments to counteract sleep inertia post-awakening, and emphasize the requirements for further research in this domain.
No related grants have been discovered for Stuart McFarlane.