A Combined Field and Laboratory Design for Assessing the Impact of Night Shift Work on Police Officer Operational Performance
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: This study assessed the utility of a combined field and laboratory research design for measuring the impact of consecutive night shift work on the sleepiness, vigilance, and driving performance of police patrol officers. DESIGN: For police patrol officers working their normal night shift duty cycles, simulated driving performance and psychomotor vigilance were measured in a laboratory on two separate occasions: in the morning after the last of five consecutive 10.7-h night shifts, and at the same time in the morning after three consecutive days off duty. Order of participation in conditions was randomized among subjects. SETTING: Subjects experienced manipulation of sleep schedules due to working night shifts in a real operational environment, but performance testing was conducted under controlled laboratory conditions. PARTICIPANTS: N = 29 active-duty police patrol officers (27 male, 2 female; age 37.1 ± 6.3 years) working night shift schedules participated in this study. RESULTS: Simulated driving performance, psychomotor vigilance, and subjective sleepiness were significantly degraded following 5 consecutive night shifts as compared to 3 consecutive days off duty, indicating that active-duty police officers are susceptible to performance degradation as a consequence of working nights. CONCLUSIONS: This combined field and laboratory research design succeeded in bridging the gap between the realism of the operational environment and the control of laboratory performance testing, demonstrating that this is a useful approach for addressing the relationship between shift work induced fatigue and critical operational task performance.
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Stress-impaired officers are more likely to make serious errors, and exhibit other adverse work outcomes including uncontrolled anger toward suspects, excessive use of force, and absenteeism.
“Stress-impaired officers are more likely to make serious errors, and exhibit other adverse work outcomes including uncontrolled anger toward suspects, excessive use of force, and absenteeism [19, 20].”
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„Wer vom Wecker geweckt wird, hat offenbar noch nicht ausgeschlafen“
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Duverger, J. E., Moser, E., Boudreau, P., Ouimet, M. C., Boivin, D. B., & Saïdi, A. (2026) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s26196104
- Authors
- Waggoner, L. B., Grant, D. A., Van Dongen, H. P. A., Belenky, G., & Vila, B.
- Affiliations
- Washington State University Spokane (US)
- Venue
- Sleep
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2012-11
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1575-1577
- ISSN
- 0161-8105 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-9109
- PMC
- PMC3466805
- OpenAlex
- W2035393064
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 3.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- SLEEP (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Office of Naval Research
- Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Keywords
- night shift work, police officers, police patrol, simulated driving performance, psychomotor vigilance, sleepiness, sustained attention, operational performance
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attention, Fatigue, Female, Humans, Male, Pilot Projects, Psychomotor Performance, United States, Wakefulness, Work Schedule Tolerance, Police, Sleep Disorders, Circadian Rhythm
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