Shiftwork: safety, sleepiness and sleep (January 2005)

Summary

This brief paper reviews the available published literature on shiftwork and safety that allows the estimation of the relative risk of “accidents” or injuries associated with specific features of shift systems. It discusses three main trends in risk:

1. Risk is higher on the night shift, and to a lesser extent the afternoon shift, than on the morning shift
2. Risk increases over a span of shifts, especially so if they are night shifts
3. Risk increases with increasing shift length over eight hours

The authors discuss the fact that some of these trends are not entirely consistent with predictions made based on considerations of the circadian variations in sleep propensity or rated sleepiness, and consider factors relating to sleep that may underlie the observed trends in risk. They also discuss the practical implications of the trends in risk for the design of safer shift systems.

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