Prevent, identify and treat sleep disorders in firefighters

It is not news to any firefighter or first responder that sleep can be a challenge – what is news is how big the issue of sleep deprivation can be and the negative impact it can have on your health.

Interrupted sleep, not getting enough sleep or sleeping at irregular times can have severe implications for health by interrupting circadian rhythms. These rhythms are the physical, mental and behavioral changes that occur over a 24-hour period and regulate the body’s processes through the release of melatonin.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, interruption of these rhythms leads to short term impacts like difficulty with concentration, headaches, mood changes and irritability. In the long term, interruption of these chemical processes can increase risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

The sleep issue is challenging to study with firefighters because they do not work the shifts typical in shift work research. Typically, shift work research focuses on workers such as nurses, residents and truck drivers who are clearly required to be awake for their entire shifts. Firefighters, on the other hand, typically can get rest overnight when they are not on calls. The challenge for researchers is that, even within the same department, firefighters at different stations can have very different call volumes both during the day and overnight.

Still, the available evidence on the topic suggests that sleep disorders are of concern for the fire service. Scientists from Harvard conducted a study of 66 fire departments across the country. Their findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, state that more than a third of firefighters responding to their survey screened positive for a sleep disorder. The most common disorder identified was obstructive sleep apnea (28.4 percent), followed by shift work disorder (9.1 percent), insomnia (6.0 percent) and restless leg syndrome (3.4 percent).

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