SLEEP DISTURBANCES IN PROFESSIONAL MEN AN D WOMEN AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH THE WORKPLACE

In Switzerland as well as in many other industrialized countries, slee p disturbances are among the most prevalent health problems. Reliable knowledge about the social and personal conditions of sleep disturbanc es and especially about their association with conditions is however l imited. Using data from the Bern workplace Health Project (''Harz-As-P rojekt'', n = 774) a logistic regression model was applied to study th e association between an indicator of sleep disturbances composed both of problems failing asleep and problems waking-up during the night an d several work-related factors. Sleep disturbances were found to be di rectly associated with perceived work load, lime pressure and physical work demands and inversely associated with social acceptance at workp lace, work satisfaction and the ability not to become immersed into wo rk. Under comparable working conditions these associations did not dif fer for men and women. It was concluded that psychosocial demands and ressources of the workplace do affect the quality of sleep.