Wake up call: How employers can improve shiftworker sleep health

Regular sleep patterns and a healthy amount of sleep are some of the most important habits aged care workers can have, yet it can be easy for them to fall by the wayside. This is particularly true for shift workers with irregular hours and sleep patterns.

Shiftworkers are more susceptible to developing sleep, cardiovascular or metabolic disorders because their circadian rhythms become misaligned with their body clock. This misalignment can cause an increase in glucose and insulin levels and has been found to increase blood pressure.  

The importance of sleep health

• Consistent sleep-wake patterns are important for employee health, safety and performance
• Shift work sleep disorder (SWSD or SWD) is a common circadian rhythm sleep disorder that causes issues with falling asleep, staying asleep or experiencing sleepiness
• Roughly 40% of shiftworkers have SWD, which may also be related to other serious sleep disorders such as insomnia or sleep apnea

Doctor Tracey Sletten is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Monash University’s Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health. Over the years, her research has focused on the effects of shift work on fatigue, the impact of sleep loss and how circadian rhythm misalignment can impact performance.

Dr Sletten expressed the importance of good sleep health to hello leaders during Sleep Health Week which runs from September 25 to October 1.

“When we don’t get the amount of good quality sleep that we need on an ongoing basis, we can have some significant adverse outcomes towards our health, well-being, alertness and performance,” Sr Sletten said.

“The impact of the shift work schedules on alertness and performance is quite considerable. We have found links with challenges in decision-making, slowed reaction times and the ability for somebody to stay on task and do that task appropriately and safely. We do see a much higher risk of errors, accidents and injuries in workplaces as a result.”

How employers can help their staff

Dr Sletten acknowledged it is difficult to provide sleep health recommendations as aged care workers have a unique set of circumstances behind the scenes: their roster, pre-existing conditions and external factors can all impact sleep health. Regardless, employers do have some control over how they can help improve sleep health and staff awareness of its importance.

Consistent rosters

When it comes to rosters, Dr Sletten said employers should be consistent when allocating shifts so employees can predict and plan for their upcoming shifts and sleep patterns. 

“Don’t completely rotate somebody with every shift being a different one as this will create more variability for the person. Try and maintain consistency for them,” she explained. 

“In nursing, we found a lot of workers would do late shifts straight into early morning shifts the next morning, which was not giving people enough time to sleep in between. We would say do three late shifts in a row and then three early shifts and you just minimise that variability which has a huge impact on the nursing staff.”

Limiting the number of consecutive early or late shifts can also have a significant impact on employee performance. Dr Sletten said despite common belief, it’s rare for someone to adapt to night shifts, and three consecutive night shifts reduces the risk of fatigue compared to longer stretches of late nights.

Influential lighting 

Working in a dark environment can often influence feelings of sleepiness. So even when your residents require a dimly lit setting to promote a good night’s sleep, your staff can still benefit from some influential lighting. 

“You don’t have to make the light extremely bright, but you can change the spectrum in the light and give it a little bit more blue or short wavelengths of light because our circadian system is actually more sensitive to short wavelengths of light,” Dr Sletten said.

Light that’s rich in blue wavelengths has been found to reduce sleepiness, fatigue and tiredness while also improving night-time performance. 

Support for sleep disorders

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, employers can support shiftworkers (or all staff) who may have a sleep disorder. Dr Sletten said there’s a large percentage of shiftworkers with an underlying sleep disorder, roughly 40%, with many of them undiagnosed as they write it off as general sleepiness or fatigue. 

She said there are several interventions available to staff that employers can provide, including sleep disorder screening and additional education on healthy sleep practices via the likes of WorkAlert. You could also encourage employees to sign up for SleepSync, a mobile application designed by Monash University. 

The app, which is still undergoing trial research, provides individualised sleep-wake cycle and light recommendations based on rosters and other commitments. Dr Sletten said anyone interested in the app should email [email protected] to place their name on the trial waiting list.