Shift work, especially with night work, has a number of negative health effects. Several attempts have been made to create ergonomic recommendations on which factors constitute a good shift schedule, but the arguments are rather weak and based on individual studies at specific companies, with a certain schedule type (eg 3-shift) and without clear criteria.

Earlier research suggests that high levels of workplace stress may increase the risk of cognitive impairment in midlife and of dementia in late life. However, not all people who experience high levels of psychosocial stress will develop cognitive dysfunction.

What role does sleep play for our well-being, thoughts and performance in everyday life and are there differences between young and older adults? These are the main objectives that we will investigate in this project.

This project focuses on three sets of school-contextual conditions which have been subject to structural changes during the past decades in Sweden – school leadership, teachers’ working conditions, and school segregation – and their links to students’ psychological health.

We investigate how sustained attention and attention towards emotional information is affected by sleep loss. We also measure the neurophysiological response using magnetoencephalography (MEG).

The work is carried out on the behalf of the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA). The main purpose is to add to, and subsequently wrap up, the work performed during the previous project on the review of the effectiveness of flight and duty time limitations and rest requirements.