Increasing Awareness of Sleep Hygiene in Rotating Shift Workers: Arming Law-Enforcement Officers against Impaired Performance

Abstract

Research into the effects of rotating shift work on health, social, and performance indices suggests significantly more health concerns and judgement errors and poorer sleep patterns in shift workers on rotating versus nonrotating schedules. 31 male and 7 female law-enforcement officers voluntarily participated in a training session on sleep hygiene practices. On the Sleep Hygiene Awareness and Practice Scale administered prior to and after training were significant increases in awareness of sleep hygiene and knowledge of nicotine, caffeine, and hypnotics. We predicted that use of this knowledge would increase sleep satisfaction. However, 1-mo. follow-up scores on the Post-sleep Inventory of Webb, et al. reflected no change. It appears that scheduling demands, coupled with feelings of low self-efficacy toward managing those demands, resulted in little or no practice of sleep hygiene. A more productive approach may be to incorporate a comprehensive behavioral program within departments to instill and reinforce better practice of sleep hygiene.

Self-Monitoring vs. Implementation Intentions: a Comparison of Behaviour Change Techniques to Improve Sleep Hygiene and Sleep Outcomes in Students

“…Nevertheless, the efficacy of both BCTs is consistent with previous studies using no-treatment controls [17,31,35]. Furthermore, research suggests sleep hygiene knowledge only partially explains sleep hygiene practices [6], and does not guarantee performance [52,53].…”

Organizational stressors and police performance

“…Previous studies suggest that rotating shift workers suffer greater sickness and absenteeism than workers assigned to steady shifts, especially when the hours are long (Holbrook et al, 1994). Research has also found negative associations between rotating schedules and employee productivity, safety and accident-proneness (Johnson et.…”

The role of self-regulation in predicting sleep hygiene in university students

“…Hicks, Lucero-Gorman, Bautista, and Hicks (1999) observed sleep hygiene knowledge and practices over several ethnic groups, and found that sleep hygiene knowledge was generally lower than sleep hygiene practices. In addition, Holbrook, White, and Hutt (1994) found that an increase in sleep hygiene knowledge and awareness did not correspond to an increase in sleep hygiene practices, further suggesting that factors other than knowledge play a role in determining sleep hygiene behaviour.…”