ONLINE FIRST: Sleep, work, health and safety

Part 1: impact of sleep loss and poor sleep quality

Summary:

After being neglected for decades, sleep science has made great progress in recent years. Pierluigi Cocco outlines its importance in occupational health and safety.

Humans spend about one-third of their lives asleep. The appetite for lost sleep is comparable to that for food or sex, which per se indicates a basic need1. Sleep also has a survival value: every animal with a brain sleeps. Sleep deprivation causes rats and flies to die more quickly than fasting, and, although a rare event, prolonged sleep deprivation can cause death in humans.

The longest voluntary sleepless survival is known to have lasted just under 19 days2. However, even not sleeping for one day causes the appearance of symptoms such as …

  

Professor Pierluigi Cocco is honorary professor of occupational medicine at the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Manchester.

Author: Cocco P

Tags sleep

Occupational Health at Work October/November 2025 (vol. 22/3) pp00

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