Sleep Academy Issues New Guideline for Treating Shift Work Disorder

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has issued an updated clinical practice guideline for shift work disorder, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. The condition is defined as when work schedules routinely overlap a person’s usual sleep timing for at least three months. The guideline contains 19 recommendation statements covering wake-promoting drugs, caffeine, naps, bright light, meal timing, melatonin, newer sleep medications, cognitive behavioral therapy, and circadian adaptation strategies. While it notes shift work disorder affects about 27% of adult shift workers (95% confidence interval 21–33%), it stresses all recommendations are conditional and none received the strongest rating. Misalignment between circadian biology and required schedules underpins the disorder, but long-term health impacts of interventions haven’t been evaluated in reviewed studies.