Impact of nighttime awakenings on worker productivity and performance.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the relationship between nighttime awakenings and work performance.


METHODS
Employees (N = 4188) at four US companies described their sleep patterns and completed the Work Limitations Questionnaire. Participants were categorized by number of nighttime awakenings: 0 (n = 464; 11%), 1 to 2 (n = 2373; 58%), 3 to 4 (n = 984; 24%), or > or =5 (n = 289; 7%). Work Limitations Questionnaire performance and productivity measures were compared among the groups using a one-way analysis of variance model.


RESULTS
Thirty-one percent of the sample averaged > or =3 nighttime awakenings. Compared with respondents with fewer nighttime awakenings, these respondents had the greatest work performance and productivity impairments across a wide range of dimensions.


CONCLUSIONS
Workers who experienced > or =3 nighttime awakenings have poorer work productivity and performance than do workers who experience fewer awakenings.
Zammit
Gary K
GK
Clinilabs Inc, New York, NY 10025, USA. gzammit@clinilabs.com
Joish
Vijay N
VN
Kong
Meg C
MC
Balkrishnan
Rajesh
R
Lerner
Debra
D
Rosekind
Mark
M
D000328:Adult; D004526:Efficiency; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014481:United States