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Work organisation and unintentional sleep: results from the WOLF study
Torbjorn Akerstedt1, A Knutsson, P Westerholm
1National Institute for Psychsocial Factors and Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. torbjorn.akerstedt@ipm.ki.se
Occupational and Environmental Medicine
|September 3, 2002
Summary
Falling asleep at work is linked to disturbed sleep and shift work. Factors like age, gender, and smoking habits also influence unintentional sleep during work and leisure hours.
Area of Science:
- Occupational Health
- Sleep Medicine
- Public Health
Background:
- Falling asleep at work is an emerging concern contributing to workplace accidents.
- Understanding the factors associated with unintentional sleep is crucial for improving workplace safety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify work-related, lifestyle, and background variables associated with the tendency to fall asleep unintentionally.
- To differentiate between falling asleep during work hours versus leisure time.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 5589 participants with a 76% response rate.
- Data collected via questionnaire.
- Multiple logistic regression analysis used to assess the risk of falling asleep.
Main Results:
- Prevalence of unintentional sleep: 7.0% during work hours, 23.1% during leisure time (monthly).
- Risk factors for sleep at work: disturbed sleep, shift work, higher socioeconomic status.
- Protective factors for sleep at work: older age, female gender, smoking.
- Risk factors for sleep during leisure: disturbed sleep, snoring, high work demands, smoking, lack of exercise, age >45.
Conclusions:
- Disturbed sleep, night work, higher socioeconomic status, younger age, being male, and being a non-smoker increase the risk of involuntary sleep at work.
- Disturbed sleep is a significant predictor for both work and leisure unintentional sleep.
- Workplace factors like demands and decision latitude were not significantly related to falling asleep at work.