Sleep deprivation negatively impacts quality of life

Sleep deprivation negatively impacts quality of life, affecting the health of the population, and is associated with increased overweight and obesity, higher risk of cardiac and metabolic diseases, as well as greater risk of accidents in the workplace and higher health costs [7–9]. Studies have highlighted the practice of physical exercise as a factor that can enhance sleep quality and duration and reduce the prevalence of sleep disorders [10–12]. However, it niclosamide has been suggested that not all physical activities improve sleep quality. Highly intense physical activity may have a negative effect on sleep when it is work-related. Geroldi et al. [13] reported that individuals with an occupational history of low physical effort exhibited better sleep quality compared to workers with physically demanding jobs. These findings suggest that physical activity is a way of improving sleep quality, provided these activities are moderate and taken during leisure rather than demanding and work-related. Brazil has undergone an intense restructuring of the production chain involving the replacement of human labor by mechanized and technology-based work, where this has had a major impact on the lives of the population. These changes in the work sphere have led to shifts in the epidemiologic profile of the workers, with the emergence of new risks to health, such as an increase in neuromuscular diseases, psychosocial problems, among other health issues [14]. Nevertheless, few studies have explored the possible effects of changes in the physical characteristics of work, activity and life-style on sleep quality of workers, particularly in rural regions of the country. In this context, two occupational categories were investigated in this study: 1) rubber tappers, who work in an activity with high physical demand; 2) workers from a factory, who work in activities with low or moderate physical activity. Rubber tappers are forest workers and dwellers living closely with nature and from which they derive their basic needs. Thus, rubber tappers live off Brazilian nuts, rubber and sustainable lumber and other subsistence-based agriculture (small scale farming) and extractivism (hunting and fishing) [15]. The daily working life of rubber tappers entails vigorous physical activity involving long treks carrying the material collected (latex, Brazilian nuts) and substantial expenditure of energy. Fishing, hunting, playing football and meeting friends were some of the leisure activities observed among rubber tappers. By contrast, factory workers perform more static repetitive activities involving long periods standing and have access to electronic devices (television sets, computers etc.) as a form of leisure, factors that reduce their overall energy expenditure in their daily lives.
Methods A cross-sectional study of a typical rural population represented by a group of rubber tappers with known high physical workload was undertaken. Another group from a similar cultural background and state of Brazil were represented by factory workers with low or moderate physical workload living in a small town (also in the Amazonian Extractivist Reserve). Thus, the population comprising rubber tappers from the Amazon forest and factory workers of a rubber factory (where the latex was refined into rubber for commercial processing) located in Xapuri, Acre state. The study was carried out between September and November 2011 (Fig. 1) [16].
Results The two groups (high vs. low/moderate physical activity) were different in all analyzed variables excepted for alcohol use. There was a significant age difference between the groups, rubber tappers being older than the factory workers (Table 2). The prevalence of sleep disturbances among high vs. low/moderate physical activity workers was 27.9% and 15.5%, respectively (p=0.003). No statistically significant difference was found between the groups for reported morbidities. Workers with high physical activity with more than five musculoskeletal complaints were twice the number of those with low/moderate physical activity at work (p<0.001) (Fig. 2).