On call work and sleep: What about the partners?

Introduction: On-call work is an effective way for emergency service agencies to manage unpredictable service demands. However, as on-call arrangements are frequently used overnight, there are well known adverse impacts for sleep of on-call personnel. In addition, there is some evidence that sleep is disturbed even in the absence of calls. Sleep is a critical element in physical and mental health and well-being, in addition to being important for optimal functioning. While a growing body of research is focused on supporting the sleep of on-call personnel, little attention has been paid to the impact of on-call work on the sleep of co-sleeping partners. Our work and others' shows that partners play a critical role in supporting on-call personnel to fulfil their roles, and thus their physical and mental well-being is an important part of the equation. This study examined the self-reported impact of on-call activity on the sleep of partners of auxiliary firefighters and consequences for sleepiness and relationship quality.