Individual vulnerability to insomnia, excessive sleepiness and shift work disorder amongst healthcare shift workers. A systematic review

Apr 23, 2018Sleep medicine reviews

Personal risk factors for insomnia, extreme sleepiness, and shift work disorder in healthcare shift workers

AI simplified

Circadian Biology on OpenScience ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Abstract

About 20-30% of shift workers experience insomnia symptoms and excessive daytime sleepiness linked to shift work disorder.

Older age and morning-type preference are associated with a higher risk of sleep-related impairment in shift workers.
Increased caffeine intake and higher neuroticism scores correlate with greater vulnerability to sleep issues due to shift work.
Being married or having children is related to a higher risk of sleep-related impairment among shift workers.
Circadian flexibility and physical activity may serve as protective factors against sleep-related impairment from shift work.
A variety of measurement tools are used to assess the impact of shift work on sleep, indicating a need for standardization.

AI simplified

Shift workers often experience reduced sleep quality, duration and/or excessive sleepiness due to the imposed conflict between work and their circadian system. About 20-30% of shift workers experience prominent insomnia symptoms and excessive daytime sleepiness consistent with the circadian rhythm sleep disorder known as shift work disorder. Individual factors may influence this vulnerability to shift work disorder or sleep-related impairment associated with shift work. This paper was registered with Prospero and was conducted using recommended standards for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Published literature that measured sleep-related impairment associated with shift work including reduced sleep quality and duration and increased daytime sleepiness amongst healthcare shift workers and explored characteristics associated with individual variability were reviewed. Fifty-eight studies were included. Older age, morning-type, circadian flexibility, being married or having children, increased caffeine intake, higher scores on neuroticism and lower on hardiness were related to a higher risk of sleep-related impairment in response to shift work, whereas physical activity was a protective factor. The review highlights the diverse range of measurement tools used to evaluate the impact of shift work on sleep. Use of standardised and validated tools would enable cross-study comparisons. Longitudinal studies are required to establish causal relationships between individual factors and the development of shift work disorder.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View full text (XML) ↗View full text ↗

Individual vulnerability to insomnia, excessive sleepiness and shift work disorder amongst healthcare shift workers. A systematic review

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

what lands in your inbox each week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief