Getting good sleep isn’t just important for your energy levels—it is critical for your heart health, too. Learn how sleep is connected to heart health.

Your behaviors during the day, and especially before bedtime, can have a major impact on your sleep. They can promote healthy sleep or contribute to sleeplessness. 

We know that sleep is important.  The need for sleep is biologically similar to the need to eat and drink, and it is critical for maintaining life and health and for working safely. 

Extended hours of work

Extended work hours can affect the amount of time available for adequate sleep opportunity. It is important to monitor the amount of hours workers are doing each day.

To work safely, workers should be physically and mentally alert. This means that fatigue is a potential risk. Persons conducting a business and workers have a responsibility to manage fatigue at work.

What Causes Worker Fatigue?

Several factors including too little, poor quality or interrupted sleep over a period of time can cause fatigue. Fatigue is the body's signal that a rest period is needed. 

• Risk factors for occupational fatigue include long work hours, a heavy workload, lack of sleep, environmental factors and medical conditions.
• Experts say employers can help combat fatigue by offering breaks, scheduling work when employees are most alert and promoting the importance of sleep.
• The National Safety Council has launched an initiative about fatigue, gathering data with the aim of identifying solutions and releasing a policy toolkit and other resources.
  Read more …

Fatigue is the state of feeling very tired, weary or sleepy resulting from insufficient sleep, prolonged mental or physical work, or extended periods of stress or anxiety. Boring or repetitive tasks can intensify feelings of fatigue.

Emotional intelligence is the capacity to understand and manage your emotions. The skills involved in emotional intelligence are self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

Occupational stress has been a long-standing concern of the health care industry. Studies indicate that health care workers have higher rates of substance abuse and suicide than other professions and elevated rates of depression and anxiety linked to job stress.

The longer he waited, the more David worried. For weeks he had been plagued

by aching muscles, loss of appetite, restless sleep, and a complete sense of

Psycho-social risks and work-related stress are among the most challenging issues in occupational safety and health.

Work is good for mental health but a negative working environment can lead to physical and mental health problems.

“The Department of Health estimates that between 15% and 20% of employees will experience some form of mental health difficulty during their working lives, with depression representing the largest percentage of this problem.”

Absences relating to mental illness, including depression, impact on every workplace. Depression is characterised by symptoms including: sadness; loss of interest or pleasure; feelings of guilt or low self worth; disturbed sleep; and appetite changes.

Occupational Health has a key role in supporting people with depression in the workplace, collaborating with HR, line managers and primary care. Jodie Aldridge and Anne Harriss explore this area of OH’s public health role.

Burnout is defined as a prolonged response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stresses on the job. It manifests itself as exhaustion, cynicism, and diminished professional efficacy.

Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, cynicism and ineffectiveness in the workplace, and by chronic negative responses to stressful workplace conditions. 

 Recognizing the signs of burnout before it's too late

 Burnout is one of those road hazards in life that high-achievers really should be keeping a close eye out for, but sadly—often because of their "I can do everything" personalities—they rarely see it coming. Because high-achievers are often so passionate about what they do,

Techniques for Dealing with Overwhelming Stress

 If constant stress has you feeling helpless, disillusioned, and completely exhausted, you may be on the road to burnout. When you’re burned out, problems seem insurmountable, everything looks bleak, and it’s difficult to muster up the energy to care—let alone do something to help yourself.

A hearing conservation program is a written program that is designed to prevent hearing loss in employees that work in environments.

Exposure to noise at work can harm workers’ health. The most well-known effect of noise at work is loss of hearing, a problem observed among coppersmiths in 1731.

What is occupational noise exposure?

Noise, or unwanted sound, is one of the most pervasive occupational health problems.