Introduction Healthy sleep is vital for firefighter safety, health, wellness, and for public well-being. However, professional firefighters experience disturbed sleep at disproportionately high rates. The current study investigated whether firefighters can obtain healthy sleep by identifying (1) differences in sleep while “on-duty” and “off-duty” and (2) risk factors for poor sleep. Methods Professional firefighters in Richmond, Virginia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services (N=268), reported their sleep using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) both on- and off-duty. Good and poor sleepers were identified using the PSQI global score cutoff of 5. Demographic and STOP-BANG questionnaires were also completed. Results Using a repeated measures MANOVA, on-duty sleep was significantly worse compared to off-duty sleep across PSQI component and global scores F(7, 253)=45.24 p<.001, η²=.56. On-duty, 76.1% of firefighters were classified as poor sleepers compared to 42.9% off-duty. 34.7% were reclassified as good sleepers or stayed good sleepers (22.4%) when off-duty. A sizeable minority experienced consistently poor sleep while on- and off-duty (41.4%), and a small number reported worse sleep when off-duty (1.5%). More night calls and poorer self-rated mental health predicted worse on-duty sleep (p<.001) and poorer self-rated mental health predicted worse off-duty sleep (p<.001). Conclusion Healthy sleep is possible for professional firefighters. Almost a quarter of the sample was classified as “good sleepers” on-duty and over half were classified as “good sleepers” off-duty. Nonetheless, sleep on-duty was significantly worse overall, with over a third of the sample experiencing consistently poor sleep. When working a 24-hour variable shift schedule, it appears that poor sleep may “carryover” from on-duty to off-duty. Poorer self-rated mental health and more night calls were identified as risk factors. Further research is needed to probe risk and protective factors within this population. Support N/A

Introduction Sleep is an important predictor of daytime functioning and is impaired in first responders. The present study investigated whether job demands were associated with daytime impairment in professional firefighters. We hypothesized that the frequency of emergency calls would predict daytime impairment above and beyond years of service, sleep apnea risk, and sleep duration. Methods Participants were 267 (251 males; mean age=41.94) firefighters from the Richmond, Virginia Fire Department who completed pen-and-paper surveys in small groups assessing sleep duration (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; PSQI), sleep apnea risk (STOP-BANG), job demands (number of emergency calls received per day), and sleep-related impairment (Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System 8-item short-form; PROMIS). A three block hierarchical regression was used to assess the contribution of job demands to daytime impairment. Results The final model significantly predicted sleep-related daytime impairment, F(4,260)=11.51, p<.001, R2=.15. Each block in the model accounted for significant change in variance, years of service and sleep apnea risk (R2=.05), sleep duration (∆R2=.08), number of calls (∆R2=.01). Number of emergency calls significantly predicted daytime impairment (β=.14) above and beyond number of years of service (β= -.24), sleep duration (β= -.29), and sleep apnea risk (β=.03). Conclusion With 2–18 emergency calls per 24-hour period, the results suggest that job-related demands are a unique contributor to daytime functioning in professional firefighters. As such, it will be important for interventions aimed at improving sleep in professional firefighters to incorporate information unique to the profession (i.e., job specific demands and intensity of work) as specific treatment factors. Support This work was supported by the National Institute on Aging (K23AG049955, PI: Dzierzewski).

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