Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and its Associated Factors among Male Non-shift White-collar Workers

Abstract

Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) has been noted as a tremendous burden on our modern society and life, but evidence on EDS is limited for white-collar workers in occupational settings. To estimate the prevalence rate of EDS and examine its associated factors, we investigated 3,909 male non-shift white-collar employees aged 20-59 working in a telecommunications company in the Tokyo metropolitan area between December 1999 and January 2000 (a response rate of 91.0%). Our main findings in the present study were that the prevalence rate of EDS was 7.2% and five factors associated with EDS were identified in a multivariate logistic regression model (p<0.05): nocturnal sleep duration, sleep-wake schedules, depression, marital status and smoking. These results suggest that the individual behavioral modification of sleep habits and lifestyle is one of the promising strategies for reducing EDS. More importantly, it is possible that occupational and health promotion policies such as a ban on overtime work and the provision of mental health hygiene and social support at worksites are effective for the prevention of EDS in the workplace.