Stress Levels and Sleep Pattern of Industrial Workers

Abstract

Industrialization has brought several changes in the society and lifestyle. Stress and sleep plays an inevitable role in maintaining the health status of an individual. Stress has caused negative impact on physical health. Both physical and mental illness have impact on job satisfaction and it reduces work performance. Work stress has become a widespread and expensive health problem. Sleep and mental health are intrinsically connected. Less hours of sleep and poor sleep quality have influence in the lifestyle pattern. An Exploratory research design of 500 industrial workers in various industrial sectors in Tamil Nadu were chosen as the study participants. The stress levels and sleep quality was assessed using standard tools such as Perceived Stress Scale and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Majority 65% of the participants were male and 35% were female; 60.4 % of the participants had poor sleep quality and 57.4 % had higher stress levels. Stress and sleep have a reciprocal relationship. There was a significant association between stress levels and sleep quality. Higher the stress scores, poorer the sleep quality. Work hours and sleep hours also have an impact on the levels of stress. Higher stress levels was observed among majority of the participants. Healthy coping strategies must be adopted in stress management, improving sleep quality and in maintaining a healthy lifestyle