Prior-Night Sleep Predicts Next-Day Sedentary Behavior as a Function of Work Duration in Public Safety...

Public safety telecommunicators are at significant risk for obesity and other health conditions, which can likely be attributed to high-intensity job functions that occur in seated positions for long work hours. However, the interactions between these variables, as well as the role of recovery sleep, remains underexplored. We hypothesized that work duration would moderate the daily relationship between prior-night sleep and next day sedentary behavior. To test this hypothesis, actigraphic estimates of sleep and activity were gathered in 47 public safety telecommunicators over an average of 11 days (n = 525 cases). Results indicated that participants spent more time sedentary when they had less efficient, prior-night sleep in combination with both longer shifts or longer-than-usual same-day shifts. Wake time after sleep onset and total sleep time were positively associated with more next-day sedentary behavior, but only when working fewer hours. These findings suggest that public safety telecommunicators engage in compensatory, behavioral sleep patterns that are consistent with chronic insomnia and affected by both cumulative and daily work duration. Taken together, these results provide strong proof-of-concept that sleep health promotion and insomnia intervention might decrease sedentary behavior.