Cody Grames

Professor: Jack Later

Biology 1615
November 16, 2016
Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness summary
Introduction:
A cross-sectional study was done in India to assess the correlation
between sleepiness and occupational injuries. The population included nine
hundred and twenty workers of the age eighteen to sixty five from many
lines of work including construction, sales, education, etc. The researchers
asked a series of questions pertaining to sleep quality of the workers and
their history of injury in the work place. These questions include sleep
consistency, gender, job type, difficulty breathing while sleeping, blood
oxygen saturation, difficulty waking up in the mornings, etc.
Summary:
This study came about because quite often many of us return to work lacking
the energy and motivation to take on our daily tasks. Lack of sleep causes
performance in the work place to slow down and deactivates certain areas of
the brain. This is especially evident in the prefrontal cortex of the brain which
handles decision making (Jaiswal) Sleep deprivation is so depriving on the
body its compared to the effects alcohol consumption. For example being
awake for 18 hours is equivalent to a blood alcohol consumption of 0.08% or

in other words what is considered legally drunk. 25 hours is equivalent to a

blood alcohol level of 0.1%.
The researchers found many sub factors that branched off from their original
sleep hypothesis. This includes marital status, education, type of industry,
etc. This biggest predictor of job related injurys due to sleep was determined
by job type. Jobs such as manufacturing and labor require a lot more
alertness in order to avoid injury then say a desk job. So because of this
individuals working in manufacturing and labor work are at a much higher
risk of job related injury if they are lacking the needed sleep.
Results:
Despite all the negative effects sleep has on the body and performance the
research turned up very weak evidence to support the hypothesis. The only
sufficient evidence that emerged was a strong correlation between extremely
long periods of sleep deprivation and inconstant sleep in relation to injuries
in the work place however for an average of 6 hours or less of sleep per night
showed no significant correlation with injuries in the work place. There were
many small factors that would contribute to inconstant sleep like blood
oxygen levels and difficulty breathing at night. These are the things to worry
about.
Conclusion:

If a particular employee is worried about going into work because of a

bad nights sleep there shouldnt be much of a worry because no significant
relationship emerged with daily sleep of fewer than 6 h and work related
injury. (Jaiswal) Unless the individual has been awake for a significant period
of time then goes to operate heavy machinery after 30 hours without sleep
there shouldnt be a problem according to this study.
Works cited

Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in Indian Traditional

Industries. Ajeet Jaiswal

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1739867/

Learning outcomes
1)
Acquire Substantive Knowledge: The article has good solid evidence that I can trust to use
and learn more in depth about.
2)
Communicate Effectively: By writing this paper I have to write in such away as anyone with
no background information can read this and have a basis for the article I read.
3)
Think Critically: I had to think critically by reading and understanding the information then
being able to summarize it in my own words. I wouldnt be able to write about it if I didnt
understand the information.