Workplace-Based Sleep Health Programs Work for Shift Workers

Sleep is foundational for your health, and the health of your people. It has a relationship to both mental and physical health, sometimes causational, sometimes a symptom. This recent review published in the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses journal found that more than half of the employee health interventions, especially yoga or mindfulness interventions, resulted in a desirable increase in sleep duration. Workplaces hold promise as an avenue for delivering programs and policies that aim to improve sleep duration among shift workers. The overall average increase in daily employee sleep duration achieved by interventions ranged for randomized clinical trial (RCT) studies from 0.34 to 0.99 hours and for non-RCT studies from 0.02 to 1.15 hours per 24-hour period. The interventions included light exposure, sleep timing and sleep hygiene. That is a substantial benefit, and we could all use some help with sleep!