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Workforce & wellbeing
Long wildfire shifts linked to broken sleep
Occupational Conditions and Sleep Duration, Continuity, and Quality among First Responders: Evidence from the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine · 2026-11-02 · Added 4 November 2026
A US survey of 90 first responders during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires found 24-hour shifts were associated with 1.65 fewer total sleep hours and four or more consecutive shifts with shorter sleep, with 83% reporting poor or very poor sleep quality.
- Study type
- Cross-sectional
- Design
- Cross-sectional survey
- Participants
- 90 first responders
- Main finding
- 24-hour shifts associated with 1.65 fewer total sleep hours (95% CI −2.45 to −0.84) and 1.93 fewer consecutive hours; four or more consecutive shifts and poorer working conditions also associated with shorter sleep; 83% reported poor or very poor sleep quality
- Caveat
- Small self-selected sample, self-reported sleep, and a disaster-deployment setting that may not generalise to routine work
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Wildfire deployment isn't routine rostering, but long shifts and fragmented sleep are a familiar problem in Australian emergency services and this adds exposure-specific numbers.
Learning goal
Understand how extended shift patterns during disaster deployments affect my sleep quality and performance.
More
- Topic: Workforce & wellbeing
- Daily scan: 4 November 2026
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