Weston, Gillian;
Zilanawala, Afshin;
Webb, Elizabeth;
Carvalho, Livia;
Mcmunn, Anne;
(2024)
Work hours, weekend working, nonstandard work schedules and sleep quantity and quality: findings from the UK household longitudinal study.
BMC Public Health
, 24
(1)
, Article 309. 10.1186/s12889-024-17762-0.
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Abstract
Background: Atypical temporal work patterns such as working longer than the standard 35–40 h/ week, weekend working, and nonstandard work schedules (i.e. outside of the typical 9–5, including but not restricted to shiftwork) are increasingly prevalent in the UK. Aside from occupation-specific studies, little is known about the effects of these atypical temporal work patterns on sleep among workers in the UK, even though poor sleep has been linked to adverse health problems, lower workplace productivity, and economic costs. Method: We used regression models to investigate associations between three types of atypical temporal work patterns (long and short weekly work hours, weekend working, and nonstandard schedules) and sleep duration and disturbance using data from over 25,000 employed men and women from 2012–2014 and/or 2015–2017 in the UK Household Longitudinal Study, adjusting for potential confounders and psychosocial work factors. Results: We found that relative to a standard 35–40 h/week, working 55 h/week or more was related to short sleep (less than 7 h/night) and sleep disturbance. Working most/all weekends compared to non-weekends was associated with short sleep, long sleep (more than 8 h/night), and sleep disturbance, as was working nonstandard schedules relative to standard schedules (fixed day-time schedules). Further analyses suggested some gender differences. Conclusions: These results should prompt employers and policymakers to recognise the need for rest and recovery, consider how the timing and scheduling of work might be improved to better support workers’ health and productivity, and consider appropriate compensation for anyone required to work atypical temporal work patterns.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Work hours, weekend working, nonstandard work schedules and sleep quantity and quality: findings from the UK household longitudinal study |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12889-024-17762-0 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17762-0 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Keywords: | Science & Technology, Life Sciences & Biomedicine, Public, Environmental & Occupational Health, Sleep disturbance, Sleep duration, Work hours, Long hours, Part-time hours, Nonstandard work schedules, Weekend work, Atypical temporal work patterns, UK household longitudinal study, Understanding society, HEALTH, DURATION, STRESS, DISTURBANCES, CONSEQUENCES, METAANALYSIS, SHIFTWORK, GENDER |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10187858 |
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