While shiftwork schedules are usually structured with one work period and one rest period each day, researchers are checking whether a split-sleep pattern could be useful for some circumstances.

A team based at CQUniversity's Appleton Institute for Behavioural Studies* in Adelaide has gained Australian Research Council Discovery Project funding of $302,000 for their Should we go halves? project.

From top, Associate Professor Greg Roach, Dr Xuan Zhou and Professor Drew Dawson

This project, the only sleep study funded in this ARC round, will explore the impact of split work-rest schedules on sleep and cognitive performance.

Associate Professor Greg Roach, Dr Xuan Zhou and Professor Drew Dawson aim to determine whether it is better to have one long sleep or two shorter sleeps each day, in some circumstances.

"Our results will inform the development of work schedules for industries and/or situations where it may be appropriate to work more than one shift per day," Assoc Prof Roach says.

If effective, ‘split' schedules could be ideal in work settings where shiftworkers are separated from their normal family/social lives (eg fly-in fly-out mine sites) and/or where the need for family/social time is secondary to the task (eg emergency response to floods, etc).

Assoc Prof Roach says shiftwork schedules are usually based on the assumption that recovery from fatigue is best accomplished with one daily sleep.

"This assumption may be flawed though, so this project will examine the efficacy of schedules with shorter shifts and multiple rest periods each day. The main advantage of such schedules is that they avoid long periods of wake by allowing more frequent recovery."