Sleep Disturbances, Sleep Habits and Excessive Daytime Sleepiness Frequency in Shift Work Informal Fishermen in Piura, Peru

Introduction: Informal workers in Latin America accept and tolerate risky working conditions especially in sectors such as fishing. These include shift work and non-typical working hours, which might affect their sleep status and health. The objective of this study was to determine the frequency of sleep disturbances, sleep habits and the frequency of excessive daytime sleepiness in shift work informal fishermen in Piura, Perú.

Methods: It was an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study on shift work informal fishermen in Piura. The instruments used were Data collection sheet, Jenkins Sleep Evaluation questionnaire, Sleep Hygiene Index, and Epworth Sleepiness Scale.

Results: 340 informal fishermen were included at this study. All of them were male, 60% were younger than 40 years old, and 35% were single.55% were overweight and 35% were obese. All of them followed an irregular schedule and non-typical working time because they adapted to the adequate moment for fishing a specific product (squid, mahimahi, tuna, etc.). 20% travel alone in small boats from 4am to 11 am and return home every afternoon. 45% travelled in groups of 5 fishermen in bigger boats to fish mahimahi, departing early in the morning and staying deep in the sea for 15 days. The other 35% kept deep in the sea for 8 days for fishing tuna or other fish species. 60% worked 12 hours or more per day (working time A) and 40% worked 8–10 hours per day (working time B). Among those travelling and coming back in the same day, 30% had another job during their free time, especially driving a moto-taxi. Overall,42% reported slept between 5 to 7 hours per day and 30% less than 5 hours per day. 25% reported difficulty of sleep during the last 31 days. 17% reported difficulty on starting to sleep and 13% felt tired after waking up. 38% had excessive daytime sleepiness. 55% presented poor sleep hygiene. The OR was calculated comparing the presence or absence of excessive daytime sleepiness of the working time A versus working time B, and it was 0.1543, with a 95% confidence interval [0.0947; 0.2514].

Conclusion: Most of the informal fishermen were young and overweight single men who used to stay deep in the sea for ~15 days, and more frequently were under the working time A. Most of the participants slept less than 7 hours per day. Being part of working time A (12 hours or more per day) was associated with sleeping less than 7 hours per day, frequent sleep disturbances, poor sleep hygiene, and excessive daytime sleepiness.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
08. Oktober 2025