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Alertness is the state of paying close and continuous attention being watchful and prompt to meet danger or emergency, or being quick to perceive and act. It is related to psychology as well as to physiology. A lack alertness is a symptom of a number of conditions, including narcolepsy, attention deficit disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, Addison's disease, or sleep deprivation. The word is formed from "alert", which comes from the Italian "all'erta" (on the watch, literally, on the height; 1618)

Physiological aspects

A lack of alertness is often associated with the physiological response of yawning, in which a person opens their mouth wide and inhales. Research from 2007 indicated that yawning may boost the alertness of the brain. Psychologists Andrew Gallup and Gordon Gallup from the State University of New York at Albany argue that humans yawn to "boost blood flow and chill the brain". Their research suggests that yawns may be "catchy" in a social setting "to help raise the attentiveness of the whole group". Robert Provine from the University of Maryland argues that "Yawning signals a transition between the behavioural states of wakefulness and sleepiness, and boredom to alertness." ^[1]

During the Second World War, US soldiers and aviators were given benzedrine, an amphetamine drug, to increase their alertness during long periods on duty. While air force pilots are able to use the drug to remain awake during combat flights, the use of amphetamines by commercial airline pilots is forbidden. Research from 2004 showed that "caffeine taken in small, timed dosages and the wake-promoting agent modafinil can improve alertness." ^[2] People who have to be alert during their jobs, such as air traffic controllers or pilots often face challenges maintaining their alertness. Research shows that for people "...engaged in attention-intensive and monotonous tasks, retaining a constant level of alertness is rare if not impossible." If people employed in safety-related or transportation jobs have lapses in alternetss, this "may lead to severe consequences in occupations ranging from air traffic control to monitoring of nuclear power plants." ^[3]

References

1. ^ New Scientist magazine, issue 2610 02 July 2007, page 14 Rowan Hooper http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426104.400-yawning-may-boost-brains-alertness.html
2. ^ Tactics to Boost Alertness May Benefit Night Workers by Lynne Lamberg http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/39/13/26
3. ^ http://cnl.salk.edu/~jung/alert.html

Further reading

• Makeig, S and Inlow, M, "Lapses in alertness: coherence of fluctuations in performance and the EEG spectrum", Electroencephalogr clin Neurophysiol , 86:23-35, 1993.
• Jung, T-P and Makeig, S, "Estimating Level of Alertness from EEG", Proceedings of the 16th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1103-4, 1994.
• Makeig S, Jung T-P, and Sejnowski TJ, "Awareness during Drowsiness: Dynamics and Electrophysiological Correlates", Canadian J. Experimental Psychology, 54(4):266-73, 2000.

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