Prevalence and characterization of sleep quality and insomnia in security guards working on the day and night shift in Delhi-NCR

Background

In today’s modern world, shift working has become an important part of society and industrial work; prolonged wakefulness is a widespread phenomenon due to which the sleep patterns of individuals are getting disturbed, and many sleep disorders are arising.

Purpose

This study compared the sleep quality and insomnia of the security guards working the day and night shifts.

Methods

This observational study comprised 100 security guards from Delhi and the NCR region. Self-administered questionnaires, i.e., the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), were used to assess sleep quality and insomnia. Fifty questionnaires were filled out by the day shift security guards, and the night shift security guards filled out 50. The data underwent analysis, and a comparison was conducted between security workers on night and day shifts using a Mann–Whitney U test, with a significance level set at p < 0.05.

Results

The result revealed a significant difference (95% CI; p < 0.05) for the variables, sleep quality and insomnia when compared between night and day shift working security guards. Among night shift workers, 74% reported issues with sleep quality and 48% experienced insomnia. In comparison, among day shift workers, 58% reported concerns about sleep quality, while 32% reported experiencing insomnia.

Conclusion

The study concluded that night-shift working security guards had poorer sleep quality and a higher prevalence of insomnia compared to their day-shift counterparts. These differences are highly significant, highlighting the potential adverse effects of night shift work on sleep health, urging the need for interventions to improve sleep quality and manage insomnia among night shift workers.