Police More Likely to Develop a Sleep Disorder

A new study shows that lack of sleep is affecting the health and job efficiency of many US law enforcement officers. Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital research team conducted a screening for 4,957 police officers. The objective of the study was to find out how many of the men and women had sleep disorders. 

They were subjected to an initial screening and every six months thereafter for 2 years.  The result showed that the police officers had common problems with sleep obesity and the developed illnesses due to lack of sleep. Metrics of the study showed that 40% had some type of sleep disorder, 6.5% had moderate to severe insomnia and 33% had obstructive sleep apnea.

The complications from such sleep disorders have a wide scope.  Insomnia has been known to cause depression which in turn can develop into a more serious problem. Heart conditions, diabetes and hypertension can be aggravated by the lack of sleep. In terms of the economy, the performance of people who lack sleep while working has also been studied. Millions of dollars are lost because of work-related accidents, errors in reports, absenteeism and other spin-offs of not having a good night’s rest.

The study on the policemen gives an idea that being overweight or obese is one factor that can magnify sleep apnea episodes. It was also clear that those who had sleep apnea had other health problems. 61% likely had diabetes, 148% had more likely reported that they had depression and 22% went through some form of injury while on duty. 

A similar study by the Harvard Medical School had findings that shift workers are more prone to sleep problems.  The quality of sleep for these workers also resulted in comparable health issues like the police men.  Workers who change shifts would only have 2 hours less sleep. These workers like the policemen, fire men and health personnel have stressful work. These frequent change of day and night shift inhibits them to establish good sleeping habits as well as sustain number of hours to sleep. Most public safety personnel do shifts and the result of such changes should be a concern.