The Police Stress and Health Program

The PDA (Palm Pilot)

To assess the impact of stress and fatigue on performance and reaction time, participants of the Police Stress and Health Program are asked to carry a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA or Palm Pilot) for seven consecutive days.

The PDA contains sleep diaries that the participant can complete upon awakening and before bedtime, as well as a video game-like activity called the Psychomotor Vigilance Task or PVT. The PVT is a one-minute test of attention and reaction time that requires you to press a button on the PDA every time you see a target appear on the screen. Participants are asked to complete the PVT within one hour before a work or academy shift and then again within one hour after a shift, and are reminded to do so by alarms set within the PDA program.

Information from the sleep diaries and the PVT, in conjunction with the information collected from the actigraph, allow us to better understand the impact that stress and fatigue can have on performance and reaction time in police work. For answers to questions commonly asked about the PDA, PVT and sleep diaries, please see our FAQ below.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. I've forgotten to complete my bedtime sleep diary. What do I do?

2. The alarm for the PVT has not been sounding. What do I do?

3. How often do I need to charge my Palm device?

Answers to FAQ

1. I've forgotten to complete my bedtime sleep diary. What do I do?

You can complete the diary on the next day. The PDA (Palm) software allows you to complete missed entries up to 24 hours after the fact. However, for the optimal accuracy and quality, please try to complete your diary entries at the scheduled times.

2. The alarm for the PVT has not been sounding. What do I do?

If the alarms on your PDA have not been going off, please contact the Police Stress and Health Program for immediate assistance. Follow the links to contact your local office in the San Francisco Bay Area or New York.

3. How often do I need to charge my Palm device?

Please charge the device for at least a few hours every day; the best time to charge the PDA is while you are sleeping. When you have completed the seven-day testing period, please keep your PDA plugged in until you return it to us. You may ignore all alarms that go off after your seven-day testing period is over.

If the PDA is not continually charged, all of the information on it -- including all of the information you have worked to collect, as well as the major programs on the PDA -- will be lost and unrecoverable.

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