Among 105 male firefighters with prior occupational accidents, sleep disturbance was the measured individual-level variable most strongly associated with perceived workplace safety and fatigue, but the cross-sectional, self-report design and exploratory author-developed outcome make these associations provisional and unable to support causal inference.
Greater sleep disturbance was strongly associated with less favorable perceived workplace safety and fatigue status.
Better sleep quality and greater emotion-regulation skills showed weaker positive associations with perceived workplace safety and fatigue status.
In the multiple regression model, sleep disturbance was the only unique correlate of perceived workplace safety and fatigue status.
The sleep disturbance association persisted but was attenuated when sleep- and fatigue-related items were removed from the outcome.
The outcome measure was an exploratory, author-developed composite with acceptable but modest internal consistency.
The author concludes the findings are provisional and non-causal, while suggesting sleep may merit attention in occupational safety and fatigue management.
This study surveyed 105 male firefighters in Türkiye who had all previously experienced a work accident. They answered questions about their sleep problems, sleep quality, and ability to manage emotions, as well as how safe and fatigued they felt at work. The firefighters who reported more sleep disturbance tended to feel less safe and more fatigued at work, and this link was strong. Better sleep quality and better emotion-regulation skills were also linked to more favorable safety and fatigue ratings, but when all three factors were considered together, only sleep disturbance stood out as independently related. When items about sleep and fatigue were removed from the safety measure, the link weakened but remained, suggesting some of the strong result may come from overlapping questions. This research suggests sleep may be worth attention in efforts to manage fatigue and safety among firefighters. However, because everyone was surveyed at one time, answers were self-reported, and the safety/fatigue measure was newly created by the author, the study cannot show that poor sleep causes lower safety or more fatigue. Longer-term studies using multiple sources of information are needed.
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Upload Your LabsBakirci A. (2026). Associations of sleep disturbance and emotion regulation with perceived workplace safety and fatigue among male firefighters with prior occupational accidents: A cross-sectional study.. Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000051154