"Sleep disorders plague police officers"

[WillBrink]

More good reasons to stay fit, and keep your weight under control. Does your PD have a mandatory fitness test? Are you given any time on the job to exercise or is it strictly on your own time? What % of your PD would you say are over weight and or out of shape?


Sleep disorders plague police officers


Boston Globe

While sleep disorders plague many Americans, police officers may fare worse than others, according to a new Brigham and Women’s Hospital study that found 40 percent have a chronic sleep problem, which in most cases had not been diagnosed.

The national study published yesterday found that 26 percent of the officers reported that they fall asleep driving at least once a month because of excessive drowsiness.

Massachusetts State Police officers, however, had markedly lower rates of sleep problems such as obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, and shift work sleepiness - most likely, the researchers said, because of a mandatory fitness test they must pass every two years to hold onto their jobs.

Police officers with sleep disorders were more than twice as likely to have depression, anxiety, and job burnout than those without, and they were three times more likely to fall asleep at the wheel, according to the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers took into account other factors that could cause psychological problems like having a second job, alcohol consumption, and total number of hours worked.

“The sleep disorder statistics for police officers nationwide are much higher than what’s been reported in the general population,’’ said Dr. Charles Czeisler, study author and chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham.

Czeisler pointed to a higher rate of obesity among officers compared with the general population as a major factor, since sleep apnea has been linked to excess body weight.

Michael Grandner, a sleep researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study, said in an interview that police officers often spend much of their time “sitting behind desks or the wheel of a car.’’

“The lack of activity coupled with the high stress of dealing with criminals could explain the higher obesity rate,’’ he said.

This is not the case, though, for Massachusetts State Police, whose average body weight is lower than the average American’s and who may have fewer sleep problems as a result. Slightly more than 1 in 5 officers who participated in the study were obese compared with about 1 in 3 Americans and more than 1 in 3 police officers nationwide.

While Massachusetts enjoys the fourth-lowest obesity rate in the nation, Czeisler said the State Police on-the-job fitness program, one of a handful in the country, probably also plays a key role.

Two decades ago, the Legislature mandated that State Police officers periodically pass a fitness test, consisting of dragging a dummy in a rescue mission and taking down a suspect by scaling walls and running through an obstacle course.

To get and stay in shape for the test, police are allowed to set aside four hours of work time every week to exercise in a local fitness facility or gym onsite. They can also earn bonuses for their test performance.

Sergeant Rick Brown, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, said he was excited about the study findings, which he said demonstrated that the fitness regimen - which he helped develop - was having an impact.

“How else can you explain the differences?’’ he said.

Cont: Rest of the article goes into some discussion on the effects of sleep deprivation, night shift work, sleep apnea:

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2011/12...5RI/story.html

[montanadave]

Several years back, when I was working 12-hour hospital shifts with a two week night shift/day shift rotation, I had a conversation with one of the docs who also happened to work with the sleep disorders clinic.

He said it took the average person from two to four weeks to establish a "new" normal sleep pattern after a major change (like switching from day shift to night shift). Switching back and forth every two weeks was virtually guaranteed to lead to sleep deprivation problems, chronic fatigue, and increased risk for a variety of other sleep-related disorders as discussed in the article cited by the OP.

And it gets even worse as you age.

I thought working three 12-hour shifts a week sounded great... until I did it for a couple of years. All that "time-off" you think you're gonna get is spent either resting up to go to work or recovering afterwards.

I was quite relieved when I got back to working a regular daytime shift.

[chavez_e_chavez]

i actually always wondered if Paramedics and Ems crew's have had Sleep problems..I might be incorrect but also isnt there a High-Suicide rate in LEO's also???? I myself have had sleep problems for the past year or so, i just cant shut off my brain when I lay my head down, Im always wondering what bills are due, If my kids are ok....But like they say, I will have all the time in the world to sleep when Im dead..

[Heavy Metal]

Constant shift change. The human body is not wired for this.

Pick a shift and keep them on it for six months.

And if you are on night shift, you damn well better be taking vitamin D.

No vitamin D=Seasonal Affective Disorder=Suicide.

[Voodoo_Man]

This is not new information, but most depts just do not care...

[Hizzie]

i actually always wondered if Paramedics and Ems crew's have had Sleep problems..I might be incorrect but also isnt there a High-Suicide rate in LEO's also???? I myself have had sleep problems for the past year or so, i just cant shut off my brain when I lay my head down, Im always wondering what bills are due, If my kids are ok....But like they say, I will have all the time in the world to sleep when Im dead..

A Cop commits suicide every 20hrs. One is killed in the Line of Duty every 54hrs. I was OTJ for 12yrs. Saw lots of guys with sleep problems. I suffered too but only mildly till I was seriously injured in the line of duty. After my injury sleep problems were really bad for more than a year. I worked 3 radically different populations during my career. I spent 1 year in a small college town, 6 years in a quiet bedroom community with a highway and 5 years in the projects. Sleep issues aside from any other shift work the dealing with the worst elements of society, when they were at their worst, was far more harmful to me mentally/physically than any other part of the job.

I recently got my EMT-B. EMS sees the same sleep disorders. I was shocked when an ENTIRE chapter (EMT) was devoted to dealing with stress of the job. It wasn't even mentioned in the Police Academy.

[Ptrlcop]

I have not slept more than four hours in a row in two weeks. I just left work early, the first time I have used sick time in five years. At this point I am thinking I need to break down and go see a sleep doctor.

Has anybody else seen a doctor for sleep problems? What did/didn't work?

[BrigandTwoFour]

A few years back, when I was pulling nuclear alert duty, the schedule we were on was absolutely terrible for the first few months. The Air Force was experimenting with 3-day alerts.

The cycle pretty much went like this (there were 3 of us):

Day 1: Wake up 0500, report to work. Stay awake until 1800, get 12 hours off in a cramped bed with a curtain right next to the work station

Day 2: Work from 0600 until 1200, get 12 hours off above ground to shower, nap, whatever

Day 3: Work from 0000 to 0600, another 12 hours in the bunk, then work again from 1800 to midnight

Day 4: Wake up by 0600, prepare for the oncoming alert crew to arrive around 1000, go home and stay awake until bed time (usually had to stay in the office until 1500, then do the usual family stuff)

Day 5: Report to PT in the morning at 0500, rest of the day off

Day 6: Normal office day of 0730 to 1630

Day 7: Take one of three written tests required to remain certified

Repeat entire cycle. Whenever you were in the little bunk, you were likely to be woken up several times to do menial tasks. Just about everything in the nuclear business requires two people at a minimum to be awake and making sure the other isn't doing something incorrect.

When that ended, we went back to 24 hour alerts (as it had been done since the 60's) and 12 hour shifts. Those were a lot easier to work around, but most of us had terrible sleep issues during the 3-day system.

[NoveskeFan]

My dept. does a 12 hour shift on a 28 day rotation from days to nights. Work M,T, off W,Th, work F,S,Su then off M,T, work W,Th, off F,S,Su. Seems the standard police schedule in this area. Been doing it for almost 4 years with a few longer stays on nights due to squad movement. I average 4 hours, 5 if I'm lucky. It's about to get worse as my wife is due July 15 with our first child. I think vitamins help...and having a "whatever" attitude about office politics...and a supportive wife.

To answer some of the OP's questions, we have no formal fitness test or program for officers to work out. I would say over half of my dept. has some form of health issues, overweight, smoking, back problems, sleepy.

[Belmont31R]

I once got put on a CQ (charge of quarters for barracks) 24 on 24 off. It was the most miserable existence you can imagine. You would be so tired after a shift you would go home and sleep for 10hrs then wake up. By the time you want to go back to sleep its time for another 24hr shift.




The only way "we" did it was taking turns napping during shift. No one bitched if they found a CQ person dead asleep at their post as long as they were making their calls.