Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in Indian Traditional Industries (Article Summary) 1

Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in

Indian Traditional Industries
(Article Summary)
Rachel Kelsch
Salt Lake Community College











Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in Indian Traditional Industries (Article Summary) 2


INTRODUCTION
Many people know and have accepted the idea that lack of sleep affects a persons ability to
function at full capacity. When a person doesnt have enough sleep, their brain may not be as
quick to notice things or solve problems, and their body may have a slower reaction rate. These
kinds of impairments can become physically dangerous, especially in situations such as driving
or operating (or working in the same vicinity as) machinery. Working with heavy-duty
machinery while not fully competent due to sleepiness may lead to serious accidents, especially
in a work situation because many employees will still work while tired because they need their
job to survive. Sleepiness in the work place has been such a threat to safety, in fact, that in 1994,
D. Leger suggested that Up to 52.5% of all work-related accidents and injuries are potentially
related to sleepiness in the U.S. working population. (p. 250)
This knowledge that sleepiness in the workplace has the potential to be very dangerous inspired
Dr. Aljeet Jaiswal, an assistant professor at Pondicherry University, to conduct a cross-sectional
study in hopes of discovering the specifics of how closely related sleepiness and work-place
injuries are. His long-term goal was to use the information he gathered to help set up precautions
in the work-place so as to minimize future accidents. As Dr. Jaiswal states in his article, It was
decided to study fatigue and sleepiness in a group of workers and the incidence of accidents was
studied in relation to fatigue and sleepiness so as to help plan better preventable measures.
(Jaiswal, 2012, p. 250)
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Dr. Jaiswal and his team selected a variety of small businesses in the Varanasi and Mirzapur
districts of India and administered questionnaires to employees by random sampling. These
Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in Indian Traditional Industries (Article Summary) 3

questionnaires contained questions from multiple related topics such as job position, lifestyle,
sleeping habits, and previous injuries that took place at work. The lifestyle section of the survey
inquired about the employees: age, gender, marital status, years of education, smoking and
drinking habits, caffeine intake, and diseases (both mental and physical). In regards to sleeping
habits, Jaiswal asked about how many hours employees slept per day on average, the length of
time it took them to fall asleep, how often they wake up in the middle of the night or wake up
early in the morning, how well they sleep, and whether or not the employees have trouble
breathing while asleep.
RESULTS
Between the two districts in India, Varanasi and Mirzapur, where surveys were distributed, Dr.
Jaiswal and his team received 920 surveys. The results were as follows: 28.7% of workers
reported that they were injured at work in the last year. 39% of workers slept fewer than 6 hours
per night. 16.8% of employees had trouble falling asleep at night. 8.3% of workers had difficulty
staying asleep at night. 46.9% of workers reported having insufficient sleep. The results varied
slightly across age, health, smokers versus nonsmokers, and people with diseases, and Jaiswal
adjusted the models to take into account these variables. There were also differences in results
between genders, but these results are an average of answers from both genders.
One slightly unexpected piece of information that came as a result of the surveys was the fact
that the workers who slept six or less hours a day but slept well had a smaller number of injuries
at work than the workers who slept eight or more hours per night but reported a low quality of
sleep. What this suggests is that quantity of sleep may not have as great of an impact on number
of occupational injuries as quality of sleep might.
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DISCUSSION
The results gathered from the questionnaires showed that the amount and/or quality of sleep of
the employees did in fact affect the amount of work-related injuries, at least to some extent,
which proves what Dr. Aljeet Jaiswal set out to show. In his own words: Sleep problems such
as difficulty initiating sleep, sleeping poorly at night, sleep insufficiency, and insomnia
symptoms are moderately but significantly associated with the occurrence of occupational
injuries in small and medium-scale enterprises. (Jaiswal, 2012, p. 261) This collected data
supported similar studies that had been previously conducted.
There were some limitations to this study, however. Namely, being a cross-sectional study,
Jaiswal was only able to make associations, rather than direct relationships. Another thing to note
that could possibly have altered the results is that the records of injuries at work, sleep history,
and health history were all self-reported, meaning that some of the information could have been
falsely reported. Lastly, amounts of exercise and length of shifts were not taken into
consideration, which could have changed the results outcome.
If Dr. Jaiswal had made the study more long-term and tracked sleeping habits, along with all the
other variables that were asked about on the survey, and compare that information to the rates of
injury at work between those individuals, then perhaps the scientists could have gathered results
that were documented over the course of time rather than based off of participants discretion.
REFERENCES
Jaiswal, A. (2012). Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in Indian Traditional Industries.


Occupational Injuries related to Sleepiness in Indian Traditional Industries (Article Summary) 5