Sleep hygiene in shiftworkers: A systematic review

In response to demand for the ‘24/7’ availability of services, shift work has become increasingly common. Given their non-traditional working hours, shift workers sleep at non-traditional times, and as such, significant research has been undertaken to understand the sleep of this population. However, sleep hygiene in shift workers has been paid little research attention. Sleep hygiene describes a range of behaviours, lifestyle, and environmental factors that can optimise sleep quantity and quality. In order to investigate the ways in which shift workers engage with sleep hygiene, a systematic review using the databases Sage, ScienceDirect, and Scopus was undertaken. The search terms utilised were: shift work, shiftwork, shift-work, sleep hygiene, sleep routine, and sleep habit. Sixteen studies were included for review. Findings show that shift workers frequently report caffeine consumption and daytime napping, contrary to recommendations. Shift workers also commonly altered their bedroom environment to optimise sleep. Diet, exercise, alcohol and nicotine consumption were investigated minimally from a sleep hygiene perspective. Future research should aim to comprehensively investigate sleep hygiene in shift working populations, assess the applicability of current sleep hygiene guidelines to shit workers, consider the development of shift work-specific sleep hygiene guidelines, and direct the development of sleep hygiene interventions for this sleep-vulnerable population.