Sleep, mood, and fatigue during a 14-day He-O2 open-sea saturation dive to 850 fsw with excursions to 950 fsw

Abstract

To obtain information on sleep, mood, and performance of divers and surface support personnel during deep dives in the open sea, 12 divers and 12 surface support personnel were monitored during a 14-day open-sea saturation dive using the U.S. Navy Deep Diving System, Mark 2, Mod O. Divers lived in the deck decompression chambers at 850 fsw equivalent and made 5 days of excursion wet dives to approximately 950 fsw via the Personnel Transfer Capsule. Electroencephalographic and self-report measures of sleep, and measures of mood, anxiety, and 4-choice reaction time performance were obtained during a predive base-line period and throughout the dive and decompression. Results suggested that, unless personnel are rotated, there are limitations to the practical duration of very deep open-sea saturation dives caused by the accumulation of sleep debt, fatigue, and loss of psychological vigor.