Occupational injuries related to sleepiness in Indian

traditional Industries
Introduction: A study was done to see what if any correlation there is between poor sleep and

occupational related injuries. By performing this study researchers were trying to find out if

workers are at a greater risk of injury in the workplace if they have a difficult time getting to

sleep, staying asleep all night, or if getting less than 6 hours of sleep daily increase the risk of

workplace injuries.

Sleepiness and fatigue typically lead to slower thinking, comprehending, and processing

of information, in addition to slower reaction times which in turn leads to more accidents when

people are not getting enough sleep. Lack of sleep and or poor sleep quality can affect many

different parts of the brain.

Not getting enough sleep causes poor overall health which can also cause missed days

from work, low productivity while at work, as well as less work satisfaction among employees.

There are a number of factors associated with injuries in the workplace and some of them are,

shift work specifically nights, poor work conditions, sleep problems, working long hours, lack of

training or experience, fatigue due to poor sleep or an unhealthy lifestyle just to name a few.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was used to collect data from a self-rating

questionnaire during the time period of May through December 2008. The subjects were part of a

small-scale Enterprise which were mostly manufacturing plants in two districts in India.

In the first district there were 585 questionnaires that were distributed to 21 factories 519

of those questionnaires were collected giving researchers and 88.72% response. The second

district contained 16 small-scale enterprises employing a total of 725 workers. Of the 725

questionnaires distributed into the second district only 401 were completed and returned equating
to a 55.3% response rate. Therefore overall there were 920 workers that responded to the survey

for a total response rate of 70.23%

The questionnaire included questions about demographics, current job, business-type,

occupational injury, sleep, symptoms of depression, lifestyle factors, and the presence of disease.

Results: Upon completion of the study researchers stated that 28.7% of workers reported having

had an occupational injury in the last year. Thirty-nine percent o f workers slept fewer than six

hours, and the prevalence of taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep was 16.8%, awakening

during sleep more than three times per week was 8.3%, and early morning awakening more than

three times a week was 6.6%. The conclusion that researchers came to was that there was a

significantly higher prevalence of occupational injury in those who exhibited signs of insomnia

similar to those described earlier.

Discussion: This study shows that there is definitely a link, though the extent has not been

determined, between sleep problems like difficulty falling asleep, waking up during sleep, and

waking up tired or other insomnia issues and the prevalence of work related injuries in small to

medium scale enterprises.

It was discovered that taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep showed the greatest

connection to occupational injuries associated with sleepiness. This study along with others

showed that there was significantly more accidents during night shifts, this could also show how

poorly those who work nights sleep. This study did determine that the quantity of sleep is less

important than the quality of sleep. There was more of a connection between non restful sleep

and workplace injury than with getting less than six hours of sleep.