The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Helena Stoodley is a Higher Degree Research student in the Sleep and Circadian Research group working with Professor Christopher Gordon. Her current research project focusses on the interplay of skin temperature and vigilance. Here she explains the scope and applications of their work.

Struggle to pay attention late at night? It is well known that sleep loss can dramatically impair our ability to pay attention (aka. our vigilance). However, our perception of how good or impaired our attention is can be highly inaccurate. So, what if we could use something as simple as our skin temperature to objectively determine how impaired our vigilance is?

In the Woolcock’s Sleep and Circadian Research, we are investigating this remarkable biomarker so we can make informed choices when a lapse in attention may have detrimental consequences — such as when we step behind the wheel. This ongoing study is examining how changes in skin temperature may be able to predict vigilance during a simulated late-night drive when people are sleep deprived.

We have discovered that the difference in skin temperature between a person’s peripheries (i.e. their hands and feet) and their torso is strongly correlated with simulated driving performance. People whose peripheries are closer in temperature to their torso tend to perform worse than those who have cooler peripheries compared to their torso.

This finding builds on previous research that has highlighted the temperature gradient between the peripheries and proximal body sites can be used to predict when someone will fall asleep. This relationship arises because heat loss through our hands and feet increases dramatically in preparation for sleep.

Piecing this all together, it is likely that people with warmer peripheries in relation to their torso are sleepier, and consequently their vigilance is impaired. Capitalising on the skin temperature-vigilance connection, we have an objective insight into their level of sleepiness/alertness. In the future, skin temperature could be used as a biomarker — identifying specifically who is more vulnerable to vigilance deficits.

So far, this project has investigated this phenomenon in people with insomnia disorder. The plan is to expand the scope of the research to determine whether skin temperature is predictive of vigilance amongst healthy people and other sleep disordered populations, such as those with obstructive sleep apnea.

Long-term, this project may facilitate the use of skin temperature as an objective biomarker of vigilance. This has real-world implications for shift workers and people working long hours who are at increased risk of accidents. People working in safety-critical settings, such as healthcare and transport are particularly vulnerable and will benefit from this research. The far-reaching applications of this simple but salient biomarker fuel this ongoing investigation.

Find out more

• Our Sleep and Circadian Research group