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Introduction: Social workers, the largest group of mental health clinicians in the United States, play a pivotal role in mental health promotion. Despite the importance of sleep for mental health, there is no empirical research on sleep education interventions for social workers. Method: We designed an online sleep health education intervention to equip social work students to promote healthy sleep practices among their clients. An interdisciplinary team of experts devised the 90 min intervention using an empirically supported behavioral change theoretical model (COM-B). The intervention discusses multi-level factors that impact sleep and emphasizes considerations for health disparities in populations commonly served by social workers (e.g., unhoused populations, clients with substance use disorders, etc.). We assessed sleep knowledge, sleep quality, and acceptability using survey and focus group data. Results: Ninety social work students (92.2% female, 38.8% non-Hispanic white) completed pre- and post-intervention assessments. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in sleep health knowledge and their personal sleep quality. Quantitative and qualitative data revealed perceived usefulness for social work practice. Conclusions: A short online sleep education intervention can improve sleep health knowledge, offering a practical method to expand social workers' understanding of healthy sleep promotion that can be readily implemented in clinical training and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obtaining good quality sleep is crucial to mental health. Social work students might be particularly vulnerable to mental health challenges and insufficient sleep, which can have important implications for self-care education. Examining social work students' sleep characteristics (i.e. sleep duration and sleep quality) and health knowledge gaps can provide an important context for promoting healthy sleep among social work students. Nonetheless, the empirical literature lacks such data. The purpose of this study was to employ a sample of undergraduate and graduate social work students to: 1. assess sleep duration and sleep quality; 2. quantitatively and qualitatively examine knowledge about sleep and healthy sleep behaviors; and 3. identify sleep health knowledge gaps. Twenty-five social work students completed validated assessments and participated in a semi-structured focus group. Quantitative and qualitative data highlight poor sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and sleep health knowledge gaps among this population. Data also reveal that while students recognize the importance of sleep, they have difficulty obtaining adequate sleep due to various contextual constraints. These data support the importance of including sleep health in self-care education among social work students and highlight sleep health knowledge gaps that could be integrated into self-care education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the impact of different nap durations (30-minute, 2-hour, and no-nap) during a simulated night shift on performance, sleepiness, mood, and recovery sleep. Key findings indicate that a 2-hour nap opportunity is beneficial for post-night shift cognitive performance, alertness, and mood compared to shorter naps or no-nap conditions, without negatively affecting subsequent recovery sleep.

Study Objectives The influence of biological sex on sleep inertia symptoms is currently unknown. We investigated the role of sex differences in the subjective experience and objective cognitive manifestation of sleep inertia following nighttime awakenings. Methods Thirty-two healthy adults (16 female, 25.91 ± 5.63 years) completed a 1-week at-home study with one experimental night during which sleep was measured by polysomnography and participants were awakened during their habitual sleep time. Participants completed a psychomotor vigilance task, Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), visual analog mood scales, and a descending subtraction task (DST) prior to sleep (baseline) and at 2, 12, 22, and 32 min after awakening. A series of mixed-effects models with Bonferroni-corrected post hoc tests were used to examine the main effects of test bout and sex, and their interaction, with a random effect of participant, and order of wake-up and sleep history as covariates. Results All outcomes except for percent correct on the DST showed a significant main effect of test bout, with worse performance after waking compared to baseline (all p s < .003). Significant effects of sex (p  = .002) and sex × test bout (p  = .01; R 2M = 0.49, R 2C = 0.69) were observed for KSS, with females reporting a greater increase in sleepiness from baseline to after waking compared to males. Conclusions These results suggest that while females reported feeling sleepier than males following nighttime awakenings, their cognitive performance was comparable. Future research is needed to determine whether perceptions of sleepiness influence decision-making during the transition from sleep to wakefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Sleep loss and circadian disruption pose a significant risk in aviation. Many studies have shown that inflight rest locations influence alertness and performance among pilots, but few studies have evaluated cabin crew. The aim of this research was to assess sleep outcomes among cabin crewmembers sleeping in a bunk during both outbound and inbound compared to alternating sleep in a bunk or a jump seat during one long-haul route. METHODS: Twenty-nine (5 male) cabin crewmembers (Mage = 30.61, SD = 2.91) flew the same long-haul route (outbound and inbound) with a flight duration of 10:41 (± 0:14) hours. Participants were randomly assigned to fly on an aircraft with a bunk in both directions or to fly an aircraft with a bunk in one direction and with a high comfort jump seat (HCJS) in the other direction for their sleep opportunity. They wore an Actiwatch throughout the entire study and completed a sleep diary at bedtime and upon waking for each sleep opportunity. Seventy-seven percent of the flights had a bunk and 23% had a HCJS. A series of mixed-effects models were performed to assess the differences in several sleep parameters when crewmembers slept in the bunk during both directions of the flight (bunk-only) compared to sleep obtained in the HCJS during one direction and bunk in the other (bunk+HCJS). RESULTS: Fifty-seven flights were included in the analyses. There were significant differences between sleep time (b = 22.56, SE = 9.07, p = .02, Hedges' g = -0.65) and sleep efficiency (b = 16.75, SE = 4.49, p = .001, Hedges' g = -1.07) obtained in bunk-only vs. bunk+ HCJS. Crewmembers obtained more sleep and had better sleep efficiency when they slept only in the bunk compared to bunk+HCJS. DISCUSSION: Our results showed that cabin crewmembers slept longer and had better sleep efficiency when they used the bunk. Further research is needed to understand how subjective sleepiness and subsequent performance are influenced by sleep opportunity in a bunk-only compared to bunk+HCJS. Learning Objectives 1. Understand where and how well cabin crew sleep during long-haul flights. 2. Provide awareness of the need to study cabin crew fatigue and performance during long-haul flights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the unpredictable nature of working time arrangements, on-call workers experience regular disruption to sleep, particularly if woken by calls. Sleep disruption can impact long term physical and mental health, next day performance, and importantly, performance immediately after waking. To reduce the impact of performance impairments upon waking (i.e., reducing sleep inertia), research has investigated strategies to promote alertness (e.g., bright light, caffeine, and exercise). This review puts forth on-call workers who are likely to return to sleep after a call, it is also important to consider the impact of these sleep inertia countermeasures on subsequent sleep. Future research should build on the preliminary evidence base for sleep inertia countermeasures by examining the impact on subsequent sleep. This research is key for both supporting alertness and performance during a call ("switching on") and for allowing the on-call worker to return to sleep after a call ("switching off"). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]