Mitigating sleep health and safety risks in shift work

Sleep is a core biological function that cannot be overcome by willpower alone. Shift work is necessary in our 24/7 society yet comes with significant risks of sleep restriction and consequent fatigue. This fatigue can lead to accidents, errors, and injuries, as well as long term health issues. The negative health and safety consequences of fatigue are increasingly recognized as a critical problem across civilian shift-working populations (e.g., healthcare, transportation, aviation, and first responders/public safety officers) and military personnel who work shifts. Research has consistently demonstrated that fatigue resulting from sleep loss, extended wakefulness, shift work, and long work hours impairs decision making and performance. Shift work-related sleep loss, circadian misalignment, and sleep disorder symptoms (e.g., insomnia symptoms and shift work disorder) also have important implications for behavior and mental health, including changes in decision making and performance, stress and burnout. Night shift work is particularly challenging, making effective strategies to reduce fatigue-related risks essential for both worker and community safety. Accordingly, there is a growing need for evidence-based approaches that address sleep health, fatigue management, and safety in shift-working populations.The goal of this Research Topic is to identify and describe efforts to mitigate sleep health and safety risks in shift work. These efforts can focus on any aspect of health and safety related to shift work, for example, drowsy driving post shift, on the job errors that could impact public safety, workplace accidents that pose risks to occupational health, or long-term risks of disease and other wellness problems. Specifically, we seek interventions that attempt to ameliorate fatigue-related risks associated with shift work.Examples of themes that contributors are encouraged to address include: - Efforts to reduce drowsy driving post shift - Interventions to reduce on the job errors that could impact public safety, workplace accidents that pose risks to occupational health - Strategies to alleviate long-term risks of disease and other wellness problems - Fatigue risk management strategies - Sleep health education or training programs - Organizational strategies such as shift timing and rotation - Other innovative interventions designed to reduce fatigue related risks for shift workers - Circadian implications for behavior and mental health in shift work (e.g., circadian misalignment and downstream outcomes) - Behavioral and psychological mechanisms linking fatigue to safety outcomes (e.g., risk perception and decision making under stress) - Sleep disorder symptoms in shift workers (e.g., insomnia symptoms and shift work disorder) and implications for intervention We invite original research articles, reviews, systematic analyses, perspectives, methods papers, and case studies that contribute to this Research Topic. Topic editors: Lois James, Devon Hansen, Siobhan Banks Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76035/mitigating-sleep-health-and-safety-risks-in-shift-work