Biological aspects and self-evaluation of shiftwork adaptation

Modifying effects of perceived adaptation to shift work on health, wellbeing, and alertness on the job among nuclear power plant operators

This study examined the relationship between perceived adaptation to shift work and shift-related problems. A total of 608 male operators at nuclear power plants completed a set of validated questionnaires including a modified version of the Standard Shiftwork Index, which covered adaptation to shift work, fit to job content, chronotypes, chronic fatigue, sleep, naps, shift work locus of control (SHLOC), psychological health, social/family life, daytime sleepiness, workload, alertness on the job, and lifestyle factors. Participants were divided into two groups according to their perceived level of adaptation to shift work. The good adaptation group showed better outcomes than the poor adaptation group in terms of fit to job content, chronic fatigue, daytime sleep before night shifts, social and family disruption, SHLOC, psychological health, and alertness during night shifts (ps<0.001). Operators who reported good adaptation also took a more frequent, longer nap and more cigarettes during night shifts (ps<0.05). The cross-sectional study design cannot determine a causal relationship between perceived adaptation and shift work problems, yet the present results suggest that the effects of working shifts may be modified by perceptions of shift work adaptation.

Individual differences in night and continuously-rotating shiftwork: seeking anticipatory rather than compensatory strategy

Individual differences in adaptation to night or continuously-rotating shiftwork may reflect distinct strategies of coping with temporal challenges of the environment. Rather than studying compensatory mechanisms, we have chosen the anticipatory response of the sleep onset time preceding work in order to reveal the strategy used by workers submitted to those shift systems including night work. Comprehensive interviews, taking into account several aspects of the workers' lives, allowed for a classification of the subjects in terms of adaptation to their working schedules. Night workers go to bed once a day, whereas shiftworkers prefer to allocate their sleep onsets to two different periods of the day. For both cases, the more well-adapted an individual is, according to the classification obtained by the interviews, the more regular will be the choice of sleep onset times.