Sleep hygiene knowledge and engagement in Australian shift workers

Objectives: Shiftworkers routinely obtain inadequate sleep, which has major health consequences. Sleep hygiene describes a range of behaviours, lifestyle and environmental factors that can improve sleep. To date, limited research has examined sleep hygiene in shiftworkers. This study aimed to assess the sociodemographic and behavioural correlates of sleep hygiene knowledge and engagement with sleep hygiene practices in Australian shiftworkers.

Study Design: An online, cross-sectional survey.

Setting and Participants: Australian adults from across multiple industries (n = 588) who work shift work.

Measures: The online survey included questions regarding sleep hygiene knowledge, and questions from modified versions of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Sleep Hygiene Index.

Results: Of the 588 participants, 52.9% reported having heard of ‘sleep hygiene’. Of these participants, 77.5% reported understanding the term moderately, extremely or very well. Engagement with each sle...