Insomnia in Shift Workers: Which Trait and State Characteristics Could Serve as Foundation for Developing an Innovative Therapeutic Approach?

Shift workers are at an elevated risk for insomnia relative to the general population. While recent research has yielded promising insights, there is still room for improvement in the treatment of insomnia in this target group. This pilot study assesses the relevance of various personality traits and states for the sleep of shift workers, with the objective of establishing a basis for the development of an innovative therapeutic approach for shift workers.Data was collected with an online survey from an ad-hoc sample of N = 225 (112 shift workers). Correlations were calculated between sleep variables and specific characteristcs (e.g. psychological impairment, personality traits, sleep-related behavior, attitudes towards sleep and shift work). Whether there were group differences between participants with insomnia (yes/no) and shift work (yes/no) was determined with Mann-Whitney U-tests and Kruskal-Wallis H-tests. A regression approach was used to find suitable predictors for the severity of insomnia.With the exception of perfectionism, chronotype and effort-reward imbalance, all factors produced significant results in correlations and group differences (insomnia yes/no). The groups shift yes/no hardly differed from each other. Four factors were identified as predictors of insomnia severity: dysfunctional beliefs about sleep, pre-sleep-arousal (cognitive and somatic) and depression. Individuals with sleep disorders exhibit differences from healthy sleepers in most of the analysed factors in the expected direction. We conclude that corresponding interventions could establish a foundation for the development of an innovative therapeutic approach for shift workers.When the resulting therapy manual is finalised, its effectiveness will be tested with an RCT.