Our heroic First Responders face two sleep health challenges – shift work and trauma.
Countless studies have documented the woeful sleep of shift workers. Perpetual shifting – turning days into nights and nights into days – exposes all shift workers to a growing list of known health hazards.
The World Health Organization, after a thorough review of the science, determined that night shift work and its resulting
impact on clock function, acts as a carcinogen. If that isn’t bad enough, the news for First Responders is much worse. Because the nature of their work exposes First Responders to incredible stress and trauma on a daily basis, they are in greater need of restorative sleep. We are just beginning to understand the depths of psychological injury our First Responders endure, often in silence. There is ongoing research in this area, but make no mistake, we already know enough to make a difference now. The current sleep science provides us with the knowledge and tools necessary to help our heroes get the sleep they need.