ANALYSIS OF SHORE-BASED SHIFTWORK SCHEDULE ROTATIONS AND SLEEP

Abstract

Navy and Marine Corps personnel, engaged in support and training operations, face challenges to obtaining consistent sleep due to shiftwork and rotating schedules. Shiftwork has been shown to decrease sleep quality and quantity, which contributes to fatigue and degraded cognitive functions including decision making, alertness, reaction time, problem solving, and ability to learn. When shift changes are more recurrent, the human body must adapt to artificial time changes more often, thereby increasing the likelihood of circadian misalignment and desynchrony. Circadian desynchrony reduces quality and quantity of sleep, which has a cascading negative effect on personnel performance. To ameliorate the negative effects of shift work, rapidly rotating schedules, and associated sleep deprivation, the timing of external cues may be intentionally modified to support circadian alignment to the required wake/work hours. Aligning more quickly to shifting work hours could result in decreased sleep deprivation, improved sleep quality, decreased fatigue, and reductions in the negative impact on cognitive function. This work assessed the current state of sleep, fatigue, mood, and performance of a shore-based watchfloor, establishing a baseline for further study and comparative analysis when a schedule change or intervention is introduced. This study will inform recommendations to shore-based watchfloors that utilize non-traditional work schedules to cover 24-hour operations.