Shift-Work Schedule Intervention for Extending Restart Breaks after Consecutive Night Shifts: A Non-randomized...

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Sleep Medicine
• Chronobiology

Background:

• Shift work, particularly consecutive night shifts, poses risks to worker well-being.
• Short restart breaks between shifts may exacerbate fatigue and stress.
• Optimal shiftwork schedules require further investigation to mitigate adverse health effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of extended restart breaks (55 hours) following consecutive night shifts on shift-working nurses.
• To evaluate the mitigation of fatigue and sleep disturbances by considering circadian rhythm characteristics.
• To compare subjective and objective health variables between intervention and control groups.

Main Methods:

• A 5-month intervention study involving 30 shift-working nurses.
• Intervention group received extended restart breaks (55 hours) vs. control group (31 hours).
• Repeated measurements of subjective (vital exhaustion, distress) and objective (hair cortisol, salivary CRP, sleep sensor) variables.

Main Results:

• Significantly lower levels of vital exhaustion (p=0.005) and distress (p=0.004) were observed in the intervention group.
• No significant benefits were found in objectively measured variables.
• Multilevel analyses indicated a moderate decrease in occupational fatigue and stress with extended breaks.

Conclusions:

• Extended restart breaks after consecutive night shifts can moderately reduce subjective occupational fatigue and stress in nurses.
• The study highlights the potential benefits of adjusting shiftwork schedules for worker well-being.
• Further research is needed to confirm findings with objective measures and explore optimal shiftwork patterns.