The Physical Work Environment and Sleep: A Latent Class Analysis.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationships between the physical work environment and sleep using a person-centred approach. METHODS A total of 542 Australian employees aged 18 - 60 years completed a survey assessing exposure to physical work environment stressors (e.g., noise, poor air quality and hazardous manual tasks), sleep timing and sleep quality, and relevant covariates. RESULTS Latent class analysis (LCA) revealed three physical work environment classes: Infrequent exposure (51%); Occasional Exposure (31%); and, Regular Exposure (18%). LCA also identified four sleep classes: Larks (24%); Typical sleep (43%); Insufficient Sleep (20%); and Owls (13%). The Regular Exposure class was significantly associated with the Insufficient Sleep (OR = 3.15, [1.29, 7.66]) and Owls (OR = 3.47 [1.24, 9.71]) classes. CONCLUSIONS The person-centred approach provides important insights into how unique physical work environment experiences are linked with sleep.