Among a group of North American police officers, sleep disorders were common and were significantly associated with increased risk of self-reported adverse health, performance, and safety outcomes.

Sleep disorders are prevalent in firefighters and are associated with increased risk of adverse health and safety outcomes. Future research is needed to assess the efficacy of occupational sleep disorders prevention, screening, and treatment programs in fire departments to reduce these safety and health risks.

The objective of the study was to determine if sleep disorder, depression or anxiety screening status was associated with safety outcomes in a diverse population of hospital workers. A sample of shift workers at four hospitals participated in a prospective cohort study. Participants were screened for five sleep disorders, depression and anxiety at baseline, then completed prospective monthly surveys for the next 6 months to capture motor vehicle crashes, near-miss crashes, occupational exposures and medical errors. We tested the associations between sleep disorders, depression and anxiety and adverse safety outcomes using incidence rate ratios adjusted for potentially confounding factors in a multivariable negative binomial regression model. Of the 416 hospital workers who participated, two in five (40.9%) screened positive for a sleep disorder and 21.6% screened positive for depression or anxiety. After multivariable adjustment, screening positive for a sleep disorder was associated with 83% increased incidence of adverse safety outcomes. Screening positive for depression or anxiety increased the risk by 63%. Sleep disorders and mood disorders were independently associated with adverse outcomes and contributed additively to risk. Our findings suggest that screening for sleep disorders and mental health screening can help identify individuals who are vulnerable to adverse safety outcomes. Future research should evaluate sleep and mental health screening, evaluation and treatment programmes that may improve safety.

ObjectivesTo examine associations between shift work characteristics and schedules on burnout in police and whether sleep duration and sleepiness were associated with burnout.MethodsPolice officers (n=3140) completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, personal accomplishment) and self-reported shift schedules (irregular, rotating, fixed), shift characteristics (night, duration, frequency, work hours), sleep duration and sleepiness.ResultsIrregular schedules, long shifts (≥11 hours), mandatory overtime, short sleep and sleepiness were associated with increased risk of overall burnout in police. Police working a greater frequency of long shifts were more likely to have emotional exhaustion (adjusted OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.35 to 2.72) than those not working long shifts. Night shifts were associated with depersonalisation (1.32, 1.05 to 1.66) compared with not working nights. Police working mandatory overtime had increased risk of emotional exhaustion (1.37, 1.14 to 1.65) than those who did not. Compared with fixed schedules, irregular schedules were associated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation (1.91, 1.44 to 2.54 and 1.39, 1.02 to 1.89, respectively). Police sleeping <6 hours were more likely to have emotional exhaustion (1.60, 1.33 to 1.93) than those sleeping longer, and excessive sleepiness was associated with emotional exhaustion (1.81, 1.50 to 2.18).ConclusionsIrregular schedules and increased night shifts, sleep disturbances and work hours were related to higher burnout risk in police. Future research should evaluate work schedules in law enforcement that optimise shift duration and frequency, and increase consistency in scheduling and control over work hours to limit burnout in police.