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Fatigue in wildland firefighting: relationships between sleep, shift characteristics, and cognitive function
Abstract
Background: Wildland firefighting requires exposure to long shifts and poor sleep, which may pose a risk to worker safety via impaired cognitive function. Aims: We sought to investigate the associations between sleep, shift characteristics and cognitive function in wildland firefighters. Methods: We conducted a within-subject observational study with 25 wildland firefighters from the British Columbia Wildfire Service. Data was collected remotely during the 2021 and 2022 fire seasons. Wrist-worn actigraphy and the psychomotor vigilance task served as objective, mobile measures of sleep and cognitive function, respectively. Web-based surveys were used to collect shift information and subjective cognitive function. Linear mixed effects modelling was used to control for inter-individual differences and explore the influence of participant-factors. Key Results: Average sleep duration on fire suppression days was 6.7 hours (SD: 66 min), while average shift duration was 13.8 hours (SD: 108 min). Poor sleep and longer shift durations were both associated with reduced cognitive function across all metrics (p<0.01; p<0.001). Conclusion: Firefighters are often exposed to poor sleep and long shifts, both of which were associated with impaired cognitive function. Implications: Our results highlight the need for fire agencies to consider fatigue-related cognitive impairment as important factor for worker health and safety.
WF24212 Accepted 27 May 2025
© CSIRO 2025
