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Shift Work Sleep Disorder
Working when the body is set to sleep misaligns the internal clock: sleep that will not come by day, sleepiness that comes at night.
Drivers affected have an estimated crash risk about three times higher than average, more marked than the risk linked to apnoea or insomnia.
Night or rotating shifts impose wakefulness in the biological window for sleep, and sleep in the window for waking. The internal clock does not fully adapt: a chronic misalignment remains between what the body asks and what the shift imposes.
The most dangerous moment is the commute after the shift, falling at the lowest point of the circadian rhythm - at night or dawn - when alertness reaches its minimum. It is one of the most predictable, and therefore most preventable, risk situations.
This is the occupational angle of the project: shifts, fleets, home-to-work commutes. The very ground where targeted prevention - and partners such as SUVA - can make a real difference.