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Singaporecooling weighted blanketweighted blanketcooling blanketshift work sleepnight shift sleep By JJ · 10 Nov 2026 · 6 min read

Your Partner Works Night Shifts in Singapore? 71% of 443 NHS Shift Workers Screened Positive for a Sleep Disorder. Not Everyone Buys It

It is 8am in a Singapore flat. Your partner walks in from a 12-hour night shift as the kids hunt for school shoes. They drink one more kopi to get through the drive home, then try to sleep while the sun heats up the bedroom.

The short answer: a new UK study found that 71% of 443 NHS shift workers screened positive for probable shift work disorder, and 91% of them had no help with it. Other experts say it can't be applied to the whole NHS, and a 29-study review and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine both put the figure nearer 27%. Both can be true. Night work is hard on sleep, and the people doing it mostly cope alone with caffeine and naps.

The study found:

  1. 71% (315 of 443) NHS staff working non-standard hours met screening criteria for probable shift work disorder.
  2. 90% of that group had tried at least one fix, most often caffeine (52%) or naps (48%), yet fewer than 20% rated any single fix very or extremely effective.
  3. 91% said they had not sought or received any support for their sleep.

What did the NHS study actually measure?

The paper, by Thavapriya Sugavanam and colleagues at the University of Oxford, was published in BMJ Open on 5 November 2026. The team surveyed staff at two large NHS Foundation Trusts in London and the East Midlands between April and June 2025. Everyone included had worked after 6pm or before 7am for at least three months. Registered nurses made up 49% of the sample, and the average age was 36.

They used a six-question screening tool called the Shift Work Disorder Index. It looks for insomnia or sleepiness tied to your work schedule, plus distress or trouble in daily life, lasting more than three months. Of the 315 who screened positive, 88% reported both insomnia and sleepiness.

The wider picture was rough. Average sleep was 6.2 hours a day. About 31% of all participants (135 people) reported at least one accident or near miss in the past year because of sleepiness, and 81% of those people screened positive. In the study's adjusted models, the positive group had about 4.35 times the odds of possible depression and 3.52 times the odds of possible anxiety. Those are screening results from a single survey, so they show links, not cause and effect.

Why do some experts say 71% is too high?

Because of who answered. Dr Nina Rzechorzek of the University of Cambridge told the UK Science Media Centre that participants volunteered for a survey that specifically emphasised sleep problems, so "the 71% figure cannot be generalised to the wider NHS workforce." She also pointed out that the study did not measure chronotype, your natural lean toward being a morning or evening person. She warned against medicalising what may be "a mismatch between biological timing and occupational schedules."

Dr Gavin Stewart of Newcastle University called the conclusions "best considered as preliminary," given the two-trust sample.

The authors agree on the limits. Their paper says the 71% is much higher than two recent reviews:

| Estimate of shift work disorder | Who was counted | Figure | |---|---|---| | Sugavanam et al., BMJ Open 2026 | 443 NHS staff, two trusts, volunteers | 71% | | Zhao et al. review, 2026 | 24 studies of nurses | 45.5% | | Pallesen et al. review, 2021 | 29 studies, many sectors | 26.5% | | American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Oct 2026 | Adult shift workers overall | about 27% |

Individual studies in those reviews ranged from 0% to 84%, mostly because they used different tools. So the honest read is this: roughly one in four shift workers may have the disorder, nurses may run higher, and a survey that attracts people who sleep badly will run higher still.

Does shift work hit sleep in Singapore too?

Yes, based on the local data that exists. A 2020 PLoS One study of 424 workers in Singapore found poor sleep quality in 54.8% of shift workers, compared with 36.4% of non-shift workers. After adjusting for other factors, shift workers had about 2.98 times the odds of poor sleep quality.

Heat adds another layer. Project HEATS, reported by The Straits Times in June 2026, found that the bedrooms of 150 Singapore residents averaged 28.4°C at night. Day sleepers go to bed as the outdoor heat is building, not fading. If you're sleeping after a night shift in a humid HDB room, temperature and light are both working against you.

What does the new guideline suggest for night workers?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a shift work disorder guideline on 24 October 2026. Every recommendation is conditional, and most rest on low or very low certainty evidence, so treat these as options to try, not rules. Some of the non-drug ideas:

  • Bright light during the night shift.
  • Caffeine before or during the shift, but not close to your own bedtime.
  • A nap before a night shift, with time to shake off grogginess before driving.
  • A snack instead of a full meal on nights.
  • Clockwise rotations (day, then evening, then night) where rosters allow it.
  • Cutting light on the commute home and keeping a consistent daytime sleep schedule.

For daytime insomnia, the guideline lists CBT for insomnia (a structured talking therapy) and some medicines. Those need a doctor, so if your sleep or mood has been off for months, start there.

At home, the easy wins are a dark, cool room and fewer interruptions. Blackout curtains, the aircon set before you lie down, and a light top layer are worth sorting first. Some day sleepers like the calm of a weighted blanket. In a hot room, a cooling weighted blanket with a breathable cover, or a plain cooling blanket on the hottest days, is easier to live with than a thick fleece. Our specifications page lists NightFury's cooling fabric and weight options, if you want to compare.

If stress is part of the picture, our post on work stress and sleep quality in Singapore covers why quality mattered more than hours. And our sleep regularity post explains why the same sleep window helps, which is the hardest thing for rotating shift workers.

So, for the night shift workers in your house, what do they lean on most: kopi, a nap before work, or just pushing through?

Sources

  1. Sugavanam T et al. Prevalence and associated burden of shift work disorder (SWD) in healthcare shift workers in the UK NHS: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Open, 5 Nov 2026;16(11):e118265 - https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/11/e118265
  2. PubMed record for the BMJ Open study, PMID 42988436 - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42988436/
  3. Science Media Centre. Expert reaction to the BMJ Open shift work disorder survey (Dr Nina Rzechorzek, Dr Gavin Stewart), 5 Nov 2026 - https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-cross-sectional-survey-study-looking-at-prevalence-of-shift-work-disorder-in-healthcare-shift-workers-in-the-nhs/
  4. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. New guideline provides recommendations on managing shift work disorder (about 27% of adult shift workers), Oct 2026 - https://aasm.org/new-guideline-provides-recommendations-on-managing-shift-work-disorder/
  5. Management of shift work disorder: an AASM clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 24 Oct 2026 - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s44470-026-00084-w
  6. Thach TQ et al. Association between shift work and poor sleep quality in an Asian multi-ethnic working population (Singapore, n=424). PLoS One, 2020 - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7055880/
  7. Shabana Begum, The Straits Times, 25 Jun 2026. Project HEATS: 150 Singapore residents' bedrooms average 28.4°C at night - https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/whats-the-temperature-in-the-bedroom-in-spore-a-muggy-28-deg-c-says-new-study-on-residents

This article is informational and not medical advice. Claims about sleep and wellbeing are general; for personal health concerns consult a qualified professional.