United States Department of Transportation
i
Work Schedules and Sleep Patterns of Railroad Maintenance of Way Workers [Research Results]
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2006-06-01
[PDF-174.50 KB]
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Abstract:The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Office of Research and Development sponsored a project to study the work schedules and sleep patterns of U.S. railroad maintenance of way (MOW) workers and to examine the relationship between these schedules and level of alertness of the individuals working the schedules. The methodology for this study was a survey of a random sample of currently working U.S. MOW workers who completed a background survey and kept a daily log for 2 weeks. MOW workers are a predominantly healthy male population. They work either production (construction) or non-production (maintenance) jobs. Within each of these categories, some jobs involve work on track infrastructure and others involve work on bridges and buildings. Both production and non-production workers get the same amount of nighttime sleep but their sleep on workdays is far less than U.S. adult norms. While 39 percent of U.S. adults get less than 7 hours of sleep on workdays, 66 percent of MOW workers have this amount of sleep. Nearly a quarter of non-production MOW workers and 16 percent of production workers experienced start time variability at least once during the study period, most likely as a result of an emergency call or unscheduled work period. Many MOW jobs require travel on personal time to an out-of-town lodging or rally point. Overall, 24 percent reported this type of travel. The study examined several possible explanatory factors for daytime alertness levels. While the correlations were statistically significant, the relationships were weak. Based on the experience of this study, several methodological changes are suggested for future studies of this type.
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