Consequences of shift work on sleep duration, sleepiness, and sleep attacks

Key findings from the Stanford University study on the effects of shiftwork and lost sleep:

The findings of this study indicate that working outside the regular daytime hours was strongly associated with shorter sleep duration, sleepiness, and driving accident risk.

Night work is the most disrupting, as it is associated with insufficient sleep during the designated rest span and excessive sleepiness and sleep attacks during the span of activity, with an associated consequence being increased driving accident risk.

Specifically:

• Short-sleep duration (less than 6 hours) was strongly associated with both rotating shift work (day, evening, night) and fixed night shifts;
• 20% of the workers manifested excessive sleepiness in situations requiring high attention, and it was associated with the fixed night and day-evening-night work arrangements
• 5% of workers reported sleep attacks; they occurred three-times more frequently in the fixed night shifts than other work arrangements;
• Driving accidents during the previous 12 months were reported by 3.6% of the workers and were associated with fixed night and rotating shift work

Source
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Posted by: gisela on 2010-05-25 21:36:34

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