The Interplay Between Sleep and Safety Outcomes in the Workplace: A Scoping Review and Bibliographic Analysis of the Literature

TL;DR

This paper reviews how sleep affects workplace safety, focusing on healthcare and construction workers, and suggests better sleep management could reduce accidents.

Contribution

The study provides a scoping review and thematic analysis of sleep-safety literature, highlighting gaps and methodological issues.

Findings

Healthcare and construction workers are most studied in sleep-safety research.

Quantitative methods and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index are commonly used.

Thematic analysis identified six key areas, including sleep disorders and accident prevention.

Abstract

Occupational incidents comprising injuries and accidents remain a serious concern globally. With sleep deprivation and fatigue representing key drivers of many workplace incidents, one strategy to reduce occupational incidents is implementing effective sleep management systems. Yet, to date, there are complaints about the methodological approach in sleep–safety studies. The extent of work carried out with respect to the impact of sleep on safety outcomes needs to be reviewed to highlight the state of the art in the face of increasing technological advancement and changing lifestyle attitudes. A systematic search of the Scopus and PubMed databases retrieved 63 journal articles published up to 2023. The units of analysis included article performance and thematic analysis. It was deduced that workers in healthcare and construction have been the focus of most studies, pointing to the prevalence of safety issues in both these sectors. Most of the studies adopted a quantitative methodology employing validated sleep questionnaires, especially the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Using thematic analysis, the research focus was mapped into six areas, including sleep disorders, cognition and performance, and injury and accident prevention in the construction sector. In objective studies, alertness and cognitive performance were considered a proxy for sleep deprivation and safety performance. Harmonising sleep questionnaires is necessary to prevent excessive paperwork and ineffective safety systems. This study has the potential to provide occupational health and safety researchers outside of the medicine and psychology disciplines with knowledge on baseline information that could advance efforts to address sleep deprivation and the resulting safety concerns in the workplace.

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