Sleep, Fatigue and Quality of Life: A Comparative Analysis among Night Shift Workers with and without Children.

INTRODUCTION: The reversal of the natural cycle of wakefulness and sleep may cause damage to the health of workers. However, there are few studies evaluating sleep, fatigue and quality of life of night shift workers considering the influence of small children on these variables.

AIMS: Evaluate the sleep time, fatigue and quality of life of night shift workers and verify the relationship between these variables with the presence or absence of children in different age groups.

METHODS: Were evaluated 78 mens shiftworkers, with or without children. Group 1, workers without children (G1-NC), group 2, workers with children pré-school age (G2-PS) and group 3, workers with children school age (G3-S). The sleep time (ST), sleep efficiency (SE), sleep latency (SL) and maximum time awake (MTA) were recorded by actigraphy. The risk of being fatigued at work was estimated by risk index for fatigue (RIF).

RESULTS: The G1-NC showed a longer ST on working days and when evaluated only the first nights shift, after day off (p<0,005). This sample, the age of the children did not influence the sleep time these workers. The MTA on day off was lower in the workers from G2-PS. The RIF was lower on G1-NC in the first nights shift compared to the other groups.

CONCLUSION: In this research, workers without children had higher sleep time during the working days. These workers also were less likely to feel fatigued during night work than workers with children, regardless of age these children.