Solljus, sömn och dess påverkan på maskinrumspersonal

Abstract

Background Many engine rooms in in the marine shipping industry do not have access to natural sunlight. The crew working there may have difficulty getting access to sunlight even during their free hours because of the shift they work. Inadequate lighting can cause discomfort and affect performance negatively (Dianat et al., 2013). Lack of sleep also has a negative effect on productivity, well-being and health (Åkerstedt, 1998; Skornyakov et al., 2015). In workplaces with around the clock staffing such as a ship's engine room, often use different types of shiftwork. Safety is paramount in many of these workplaces and staff must be able to perform at an elevated level. Questions How does the lack of sunlight affect the perceived wellbeing of the engine room staff? How does the shiftwork in the engine room effect sleep and sleep quality? Method In order to answer the questions a survey was used. The survey was answered by 69 individuals at the 17 employers to whom we sent it. All respondents had their main workplace in the engine room. Results Similar to the studies conducted by Harb et al. (2015) and Zadeh et al. (2014), it is possible to see a clear trend that the perceived wellbeing at work increases with the number of hours of sunlight that the workers are exposed to. As for shiftwork and sleep, the shifts 12/12, 10/14, 4/8 and 8/16 were examined. When examining the average value in the answers for sleep-related properties and quality the different types of shifts were compared to one another. The shift 12/12 showed the worst results in all categories followed by 10/14 which was slightly above 12/12. The shift types 4/8 and 8/16 gave the highest results with 4/8 as the best in all categories.