The Factors Influencing The Quality Of Sleep Of Call Center Workers

There are several factors may affect the quality of sleep among call center agents. It may be work life, lifestyle, or current predicaments. These factors are possibly the reason for the occurrence of sleep deprivation which in turn negatively affects the individual’s overall health status.

A study was conducted to determine the effects of sleep duration and leptin, ghrelin, and Body Mass Index (BMI). The study was executed in the grounds that sleep duration may be an important body weight and metabolism regulator and that the roles of the aforementioned metabolic hormones were initially unknown. In the results of their study, there was a U-shaped curvillinear association among sleep period together with BMI. It was found that in individuals sleeping less than eight hours, which was 74. 4% of the sample, had increased BMI. Therefore, increased BMI was proportional to decreased sleep. Reduced sleep was also correlated with leptin and ghrelin in which leptin was decreased by 15. 5% and ghrelin increased by 14. 9%, these variables were independent of BMI. In conclusion, individuals with short sleep period had reduced leptin, together with elevated ghrelin. The differences in leptin along with ghrelin are likely to increase appetite which possibly explains the elevated BMI. From the Brazilian Association of Sleep, a research about the association appertaining to length of sleep and self-rated health was conducted. It was concluded that sleep duration should be considered in inquiries about health conditions.

The review showed such sleep length do correlate with poor or worse self-rated health. Individuals who sleeps less than seven hours daily were more likely to belong in the poor health category. It was also stated in the study that genetic factors may also interfere sleep duration such as how a genetic disposition directed toward chronic insomnia can cause short sleep durations. Of the many health-related effects of shift work, disturbed sleep is the most common. Much sleep loss is the product of reduced and/or fragmented nocturnal sleep. Shift workers practically always report more sleep disturbances than day workers.

According to a study written by Bonnet & Arand (1995), It has been argued that the actual sleep requirement may be less than the total amount of sleep that can be accumulated during a 24-hour period. Evidence exists that normal young adults can sleep for 14. 4 hours in a 24-hour period. Although some of this sleep may be "excess", there is currently no way to determine what sleep may be excess and what may be required. The effects vary, however, depending on the shift timing. The impact of night, morning and afternoon shifts on sleep patterns is summarized below. A similar study from Aguila (2012), the effects of shift work on a person’s health and well-being have been shown in several studies. Acute health effects (e. g. , sleep along with digestive disturbances), chronic repercussions (e. g. , metabolic with cardiovascular pathologies and increased cancer risk) and social effects have been reported in different shift work.

Based on a study by Marinache (2016), Sleep is became a causality in modern life. According to sleep researchers, studies point to a ‘sleep deficit’ among Americans, most of them are currently getting between 60 and 90 minutes less a night than they should for better health and performance. The number of people showing up at sleep disorder clinics with serious problems has increased in the last decade. Shift work, long working hours, the growth of a global economy (with its attendant continent-hopping and twenty-four-hour business culture), and the accelerating pace of life have all contributed to sleep deprivation. If you need an alarm clock, the experts warn, you’re probably sleeping too little’. Sleep is considered an important modulator of the immune response. Thus, a lack of sleep can decrease immunity, increases chance of susceptibility to infection. For instance, shorter sleep durations are associated with an increased suffering from the common cold. The function of sleep in changing immune responses must be proven to understand how sleep deprivation increases the susceptibility to viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections. Not only environmental factors, but also lifestyles and diseases can contribute to irregular sleep patterns. Lack of sleep or inadequate sleep are connected wiith a wide variation of unfavorable events: industrial and civil disasters, road accidents, distress and psychiatricconditions, drug abuse, increased mortality and morbidity, increased healthcare costs, direct economic costs, detrimental health effects and a reduction in overall wellness, performance and productivity.

There are a lot of explanations for greater susceptibility to infections. Total sleep restriction in humans is associated with increased daytime sleepiness, reduced performance, and hormonal/metabolic obstructions. The effects of mild chronic sleep restriction that mimic real life are not known. To assess the effects of modest sleep restriction from 8 to 6 h/night for 1 wk, 25 young, healthy, normal sleepers (12 men and 13 women) were studied for 12 consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory. After 1 wk of sleep restriction, although subjects’ nighttime sleep was deeper, subjects were significantly sleepier (multiple sleep latency test) and performed worse in four primary variables of psychomotor vigilance test (both P < 0. 01). Furthermore, 24-h secretion of IL-6 was increased by 0. 8 ± 0. 3 pg/ml (P < 0. 05) in both sexes, whereas TNFα was increased only in men. Also, the peak cortisol secretion was lower after sleep restriction than at baseline, and this difference was stronger in men (55. 18 ± 24. 83 nmol/liter; P < 0. 05) than in women (35. 87 ± 24. 83 nmol/liter; P < 0. 16). We conclude that in young men and women, modest sleep loss is associated with significant sleepiness, impairment of psychomotor performance, and increased secretion of proinflammatory cytokines. Given the potential association of these behavioral and physical alterations with health, well-being, and public safety, the idea that sleep or parts of it are optional should be regarded with caution.

Although total or severe partial sleep deprivation is not commonly practiced in the general population, a modest reduction of sleep time on a chronic basis appears to be a characteristic of modern civilization. It has been estimated that although in the first half of the 20th century the average person used to sleep 9 h/d, today an individual sleeps, on the average, 7. 5 h/d. The rising pressure from work, family, and social changes have resulted in many people sleeping a total of 6 h/d or even less. Althoughsome researchers have expressed concern about the effects of chronic sleep curtailment or chronic sleep debt, others have argued that an individual’s body and mind can adapt to these changes without any detrimental effects. Thus, it was reported that acute deprivation of the last 3. 5 h of sleep did not increase the delta (0–3 Hz) electroencephalograms (EEGs) in recovery sleep, suggesting that nondelta sleep might be unnecessary. These results supported the hypothetical division of sleep into core sleep, which consisted primarily of slow wave sleep (SWS), and optional stage 2 sleep, which might be “a time filler when the mammals have little else to do”.

Even a sleep restriction to 6 h in 13 healthy adults (10 men and three women) was associated with a deterioration of psychomotor performance. In our study we chose to restrict sleep from 8 to 6 h (25%) for 1 wk to mimic real-life situations and to test whether these 2 h of sleep are optional for healthy young men and women in terms of effects on daytime sleepiness, psychomotor performance, and physical health (Van Dongen et al. ). The potential impact of chronic sleep loss on human health, with the exception of the behavioral effects, has received little attention. People have this belief they need 8 hours of sleep to prevent the risk of distinct comorbidities. This belief is very common among victims of chronic insomnia and insufficient hours of sleep. The risk of such can be diminished when the amount of hours of sleep has met or the intake of sleeping pills but has not been proven. A certain study discussed about the correlation between time spent watching television, sleep duration and obesity in Valencia, Spain which had the highest obesity rate. People who slept nine hours or more had a lower prevalence odds ratio of being obese. Based on a study they said to be inversely proportional and are statistically significant. . It was stated that for each additional hour spent sleeping per day the POR for obesity decreased by 24%. There are different types of shift work schedules that does not fall only on morning, midday or night shift. Like a worker can start during the night, morning then midday or have a constant schedule consisting of mornings or night shift. Shift rotations and working hours are also important when defining shift rotation since majority of the shift work studies fail to describe different shift work schedules.

Emotional repression mainly affects psychological health of a call center center for it is a necessity to express a happy attitude towards the costumer without showing any negative emotion or hostile interactions while giving their services to the customer. This has also indicated that the main cause of depression and anxiety of employees are from their work who had their true feelings concealed. Call-time pressure, dealing with hostile customers, reading prescripted conversations on the phone endlessly, system monitoring of call activities, and difficulty in providing good customer service while simultaneously meeting time targets were found to be significant sources of job stress. Brown more vividly, characterizes the work as “repetitive brain strain”.

The changing lifestyles, demand for luxury, and emergence of high-income spending groups coupled with a thoroughly cosmopolitan outlook of life are changing the modern Indian. As entry and exit in these call centers is easy as compared with other jobs, freshly-out young graduates who are on the verge of starting their career are easily attracted by the lucrative salaries, lavishing lifestyle, and other remuneration packages they offer.