Effect of occupation on sleep duration among daytime Japanese workers: A cross-sectional study

Sleep Habits and Disturbances Among Tunisian Adults: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey

Background

Sleep quality and disturbances have gained heightened scholarly attention due to their well-established association with both mental and physical health. This study aims to assess sleep-wake habits and disturbances in Tunisian adults.

Methodology

This cross-sectional study employed an online questionnaire to assess 3074 adults ≥ 18 years. Primary outcomes, including sleep quality, daytime vigilance, mood, and subjective well-being, were measured using validated questionnaires [the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9, and the World Health Organisation-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5)].

Results

Less than two-thirds (n= 1941; 63.1%) of participants were females and the mean age was 36.25±13.56. The prevalence of poor sleep quality was 53.8% when defined as a PSQI > 5. The prevalence of insomnia, short sleep duration, long sleep duration, EDS, severe depression, and poor well-being were 14.5%, 34.7%, 12.3%, 32.4%, 7.4%, and 40.2%, respectively. Some factors were associated with an increased likelihood of poor sleep quality, including female gender, chronic hypnotics use, internet use close to bedtime, daily time spent on the internet >3 hours, smoking, university- level education, nocturnal work, severe depression, impaired well-being status, insomnia, and EDS.

Conclusion

The high prevalence of sleep-wake disturbances among Tunisian adults emphasizes the need for an appropriate screening strategy for high-risk groups. Individuals with unhealthy habits and routines were significantly more likely to experience these kinds of disturbances. Consequently, there is a pressing need for educational programs on sleep to foster healthier sleep patterns.

Associations of endurance, muscle strength, and balanced exercise with subjective sleep quality in sedentary workers: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The optimal exercise combination for improving sleep quality among sedentary workers is unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To reveal what combination of exercises contributes to good sleep quality.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 5,201 sedentary workers who underwent health examinations in 2019. Data on sleep quality, basic attributes, energy expenditure, and lifestyle aspects such as exercise and physical activity, supper time close to bedtime, and alcohol intake were obtained. The subjects reported their exercise habits by selecting up to three forms of exercise from a list of 182 options, which were classified into three types: endurance (e.g., jogging), muscle strength (e.g., bench pressing), and balanced types which combined both endurance and muscle strength characteristics. (e.g., walking). These forms were then categorized into eight combination patterns: endurance only; muscle strength only; balanced only; endurance and muscle strength; endurance and balanced; muscle strength and balanced; all types; and absence of any exercise habits. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to examine the associations between the exercise combination patterns and sleep quality.

RESULTS

Good sleep quality was significantly associated with "endurance" (OR = 1.419; 95% CI 1.110-1.814), "balanced only" (OR = 1.474; 95% CI 1.248-1.741), and "endurance and balance" (OR = 1.782; 95% CI 1.085-2.926) exercise patterns. No significant associations were found between the combinations that included muscle strength exercises and sleep quality.

CONCLUSION

The endurance or balanced-type exercises, or a combination of both, may help to improve the sleep quality of sedentary workers as part of occupational health management.

Lifestyle parameters of Japanese agricultural and non-agricultural workers aged 60 years or older and less than 60 years: A cross-sectional observational study

OBJECTIVES

Improving the lifestyle of occupational workers is essential for extending healthy life expectancy. We investigated various lifestyle-related items in a rural Japanese population and compared them between agricultural and non-agricultural workers.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted as a part of the "Iwaki Health Promotion Project." Lifestyle-related items such as sleep, work hours, nutrition, health-related quality of life, and proportion of time spent performing each daily activity were compared between agricultural and non-agricultural workers in the ≥60 years (n = 251) and <60 years (n = 560) age groups.

RESULTS

Agricultural workers had significantly lower Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index total scores than non-agricultural workers in the <60 years group. The proportion of participants with more than 5 weekly working days was high among agricultural workers in both groups. Additionally, the proportion of people who worked more than 8 h per day was high among agricultural workers in both age groups. Energy intake per day was high among agricultural workers in the <60 years group. In both age groups, agricultural workers slept and woke up approximately 40 min earlier than did non-agricultural workers.

CONCLUSIONS

Agricultural workers have better sleep habits but work longer than non-agricultural workers, with some differences in energy intake and proportion of time spent on each daily activity. These differences should be considered when planning lifestyle intervention programs for agricultural workers.

Sleep and memory: The impact of sleep deprivation on transcription, translational control, and protein synthesis in the brain

In countries around the world, sleep deprivation represents a widespread problem affecting school-age children, teenagers, and adults. Acute sleep deprivation and more chronic sleep restriction adversely affect individual health, impairing memory and cognitive performance as well as increasing the risk and progression of numerous diseases. In mammals, the hippocampus and hippocampus-dependent memory are vulnerable to the effects of acute sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation induces changes in molecular signaling, gene expression and may cause changes in dendritic structure in neurons. Genome wide studies have shown that acute sleep deprivation alters gene transcription, although the pool of genes affected varies between brain regions. More recently, advances in research have drawn attention to differences in gene regulation between the level of the transcriptome compared with the pool of mRNA associated with ribosomes for protein translation following sleep deprivation. Thus, in addition to transcriptional changes, sleep deprivation also affects downstream processes to alter protein translation. In this review, we focus on the multiple levels through which acute sleep deprivation impacts gene regulation, highlighting potential post-transcriptional and translational processes that may be affected by sleep deprivation. Understanding the multiple levels of gene regulation impacted by sleep deprivation is essential for future development of therapeutics that may mitigate the effects of sleep loss.