Could your job be keeping you from getting enough sleep?

2/22/2012

Employee wellness programs can help workers follow healthy lifestyle patterns. This includes encouraging people to eat right, exercise and get a good night's sleep on a regular basis. While these initiatives can be beneficial to anyone, people who work in certain jobs may be in greater need of help falling asleep at night than others.

Recently, data from the National Health Interview Survey revealed what types of workers reported getting the least amount of sleep each night.

Lawyers, home health aides, police officers and physicians were all at the top of the list of people who are sleep-deprived. These professionals were closely followed by economists, social workers, computer programmers and plant operators.

Study authors commented that lawyers may be up at night worrying about their clients or their staggering student loans, while police officers may be losing sleep because they have such a stressful job.

"At the other end of the scale, those occupations with longer sleep periods include jobs that involve working outdoors, such as construction workers and forestry workers. The daylight-only schedule or just the additional sunlight may allow these workers a few more minutes of sleep each night," according to a press release about the study.

Regardless of a person's profession, nurse practitioners at onsite clinics can help individuals learn ways to sleep soundly throughout the night.

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