Older adults were considered a vulnerable group for the COVID-19 infection and its consequences, including problems with sleep.AimTo evaluate the prevalence of sleep disorders in older adults, to describe their sleep patterns, as well as to analyse if there were any changes in comparison with the period pre-pandemic.Materials and MethodsOnline survey used for data collection received answers from 914 elderly age range 65–90 years, from April to August 2020. Results: 71% of the sample reported a pre-existent sleep disorder, and some (...) of them worsened during the pandemic, especially Insomnia in women and Obstructive Sleep Apnea in men. No difference in sleep duration before and during the pandemic was found, although there was a worsening of some aspects related to sleep, such as sleep quality, sleep efficiency, awakening quality, sleep latency and nocturnal awakenings, especially in the female gender. Educational level influenced sleep latency, indicating higher sleep latency among those with primary education when compared with the ones with Ph.D.ConclusionThe pandemic had influenced sleep patterns among the elderly, as well as worsening of pre-existent sleep disorders. Female gender and low educational level were considered risk factors for sleep alterations, and high educational level, on its turn, appeared to be a protective factor. (shrink)

Individuals with Parkinson’s disease and temporal lobe epilepsy have hallucinations and mild cognitive dysfunction. The objective of this work was to study dreams in PD and TLE patients using a common functional model of dream production involving the limbic and paralimbic structures.Dreams were characterised in early-stage PD and TLE patients with dream diaries classified by the Hall van de Castle system and were compared with matched controls.In PD, there were significant differences between patients’ dreams and those of controls: animals, physical (...) aggression, and a befriender were more common in patients, and aggressor and bodily misfortunes were less common. The dreams of patients with frontal dysfunction showed more aggressive features.TLE patients had lower recall than PD patients and a higher proportion of dreams involving family and familiar settings, lower proportions involving success, and a higher incidence of frontal dysfunction.The dreams of PD and TLE patients share important features. (shrink)

From its initial conceptualization as emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced personal efficacy for the help professions, burnout has received increasing attention in modern times, especially after the 2019 WHO’s inclusion of this syndrome in the ICD-11 list. Burnout can be measured using several psychometric instruments that range in dimensionality, number of items, copyrighted, and free use formats. Here, we report the psychometric properties of data gathered with the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory in a sample of Portuguese Aircraft maintenance technicians. As far (...) as we know, this is the first study addressing the burnout syndrome in this occupational group. Data gathered with the OLBI displayed good evidence of validity related to internal structure, to other variables, with good evidence of reliability. We showed that burnout significantly correlated with mental and physical fatigue emphasizing the vital critical role that these variables play with safety in the aviation industry. (shrink)