Young adults have an increased likelihood of experiencing fatigue, as well as greater difficulty knowing when they are fatigued and fewer mechanisms for coping with fatigue. Fatigue in the workplace is commonly associated with an increased risk for workplace injuries and accidents. Education to raise awareness about fatigue in this population, and to modify sleep behaviour, is one way to address this need.
Previous attempts to manage fatigue in young workers have primarily used classroom-based educational interventions, and have had only moderate success. This may be due, in part, because the way young adults think about sleep, including their willingness and ability to change sleep behaviour, is currently unknown. It may be necessary to consider innovative approaches that are in line with how young people communicate in order to enhance the efficacy of sleep and fatigue interventions. The aim of this study was to determine what changes, if any, young adults are willing to make to their sleep behaviour, to identify factors that may enable or prevent these change, and to investigate young workers preferences for the structure, function and format of a sleep and fatigue intervention.
Study 1 used qualitative methods to investigate the barriers and enablers to modifying sleep behaviour in young workers, as well as young worker’s preferences for the structure, function and format of a sleep and fatigue intervention. The aim of Study 2 was to implement and evaluate the efficacy and utility of the YAWN sleep and fatigue intervention program in a sample of young
workers.