Abstract
As part of an effort to improve the health and safety of shiftworkers in the mining industry, the U.S. Bureau of Mines is studying their sleep and work habits. Whereas shiftworkers on the day shift are more or less job-bound, i.e., they normally go to bed between 9 and 11 pm and wake up in time to go to work, shiftworkers on the night rotation employ a variety of sleep strategies. Given this variability in sleep behavior, professional shiftwork researchers and consultants have promulgated "preferred" sleep strategies, but often with little agreement. This study is a further attempt to associate shiftworkers' sleep strategies with sleep quantity and quality, physical tolerance to the night shift, and health complaints.
