Investigation of Synbiotic Effect in Thai Night Shift Workers Identified by Epworth Sleepiness Scales

Abstract

Many sleep disorders are characterized by excessive sleepiness. As a type of circadian rhythms sleep-wake disorder, shift work sleep disorder consists of insomnia or excessive drowsiness caused by a recurrent task schedule that crosses with usual sleep hours. Night-shift workers have a disrupted circadian rhythm, indicating less overall sleep time than evening and day workers. Probiotic supplementation has been found to improve subjective sleep quality, associated with balancing gut microbiota. The objective was to investigate the sleeping habits of night shift workers after treating with a synbiotic supplement. Eleven excessive drowsiness among night-shift workers was included in this study. Epworth Sleepiness Scale assessed each participant. For 8 weeks, all participants were given a synbiotic supplement containing 7 probiotics and 3 prebiotics once a day. The Epworth Sleepiness Scales of night shift workers who participated in the pre-intervention showed that most of the night shift workers were mild excessive daytime sleepiness, while fewer night shift workers showed moderate excessive daytime sleepiness. It was found that most of the night shift workers were moved to lower normal daytime sleepiness, while the less of night shift workers showed higher normal daytime sleepiness. It showed a significant improvement of the Epworth Sleepiness Scales (p=0.003). Although these data are preliminary, they may not reflect all of the night shift workers' sleep propensities after treatment with synbiotics. It requires more research to be conducted in a wider scale.