Stress Levels and Sleep Pattern of Industrial Workers

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.