Summary

A groundbreaking randomized control trial with Seattle Police Department officers shows that just 140 minutes of fatigue management training over 8 weeks delivered remarkable results:

• 18 additional minutes of sleep per night,
• 50% reduction in PTSD symptoms,
• 33% reduction in anxiety, and
• 45% fewer incidents of falling asleep while driving.

This first-of-its-kind study provides compelling evidence that targeted, research-based wellness interventions can significantly improve officer mental health, safety, and performance. These results align perfectly with Benchmark Analytics’ First Sign Precision Wellness approach, which uses data science to proactively identify officers in need, facilitate wellness planning, and deliver proven interventions.

“Evaluating the effectiveness of a fatigue training intervention for the Seattle Police Department: results from a randomized control trial” was published in 2024 in the Journal of Experimental Criminology by Lois James, Stephen James, and Loren Atherley.

The Challenge Facing Law Enforcement

Policing is a profession plagued by fatigue, with shift work and long hours leading to insufficient sleep and problematic patterns of biorhythmic disruptions due to the nature of the job. The study revealed concerning baseline statistics that highlight the wellness crisis in policing:

• 77% of participating officers reported poor sleep quality
• 52% showed symptoms of depression
• 50% exhibited PTSD symptoms
• 41% experienced anxiety
• 20% reported falling asleep while driving

On average, officers were sleeping only about 6.7 hours per night, below the recommended 7+ hours for optimal health and functioning. Evening and night shift workers faced even greater challenges, experiencing poorer sleep quality, increased daytime sleepiness, and a significantly higher likelihood of falling asleep behind the wheel.

A study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that across a survey of over 2,000 U.S. and Canadian officers, 91% reported routine fatigue, 85% reported driving while drowsy, and 39% reported falling asleep at the wheel. These statistics underscore the severity of the fatigue problem in law enforcement.

The Intervention That Made a Difference

The 8-week fatigue management program developed by the researchers included:

• Education on sleep science and the risks of fatigue
• Stress management techniques
• Nutrition and exercise guidance
• Principles of sleep hygiene
• Practical fatigue countermeasures
• Guided breathing exercises and meditation

The entire training required only about 140 minutes of online learning spread across 8 weeks, with simple homework assignments like keeping a sleep diary. This relatively low time burden was specifically designed to make the program practical for implementation in busy agencies facing staffing shortages.

Compelling Results

Using sophisticated analytical techniques, including multi-level mixed models, the research team found that this relatively modest intervention produced significant improvements across multiple domains:

Sleep Improvements

Increased Sleep Duration: Officers receiving the training gained an average of 18 minutes of sleep per 24-hour period, while the control group lost 9 minutes of sleep during the same timeframe. This pushed the trained officers into the recommended 7-8 hour sleep range associated with better health outcomes.

Shift-Specific Benefits: Day shift officers saw the most dramatic improvements, gaining an average of 34 minutes of sleep per night and improving sleep quality from 81% to 84% efficiency. Night shift workers also experienced meaningful benefits, though improvements were more modest due to the inherent challenge of circadian misalignment when working against the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle.

Mental Health Benefits

The training significantly reduced symptoms of depression, with PHQ-9 scores dropping from an average of 7 to 5 for the treatment group (while increasing from 7 to 8 in the control group).

Anxiety symptoms also decreased, with GAD-7 scores falling from 6 to 4 in the treatment group, while remaining unchanged in the control group.

Most remarkably, PTSD symptomatology showed dramatic improvement, dropping from an average score of 34 to 16 – a reduction so substantial it moved officers below the clinical threshold for probable PTSD. The treatment explained 30% of the variance in PCL-5 (post-traumatic stress) scores, indicating a particularly strong effect.

Safety Improvements

The percentage of officers reporting falling asleep while driving dropped from 20% to 11% after the training, whereas the control group showed no improvement, remaining at 15-16%. This safety improvement is particularly critical given the amount of time officers spend behind the wheel and the potentially catastrophic consequences of drowsy driving.

Methodological Strengths

This study represents a significant advancement over previous research in several ways:

• It used a rigorous randomized control trial design, whereas most previous studies relied on simple pre-post designs that couldn’t account for external factors.
• It combined objective physiological measurements (wrist actigraphy to measure sleep) with validated psychological survey instruments, providing a more complete picture of officer wellness.
• It included both sworn officers and civilian staff, acknowledging that wellness concerns affect all personnel within police departments.

Implications for Law Enforcement Agencies

The Seattle Police Department study demonstrates that a targeted fatigue management intervention can produce dramatic improvements in officer wellness: officers gained meaningful sleep, experienced significant reductions in PTSD and anxiety symptoms, and became substantially safer on the roads. These results represent some of the most compelling evidence to date that evidence-based wellness interventions can have a meaningful impact on officer well-being.

The study demonstrates that even a relatively low-burden training approach—requiring just 140 minutes over 8 weeks—can yield substantial improvements in officer wellness, making it a practical option for departments of all sizes and resource levels. Given that officer fatigue and mental health challenges are widespread across law enforcement, these research-proven interventions could potentially benefit officers and agencies nationwide.

The practical nature of this intervention is particularly significant for agencies facing budget constraints and staffing challenges, as it requires minimal resources while delivering measurable results in critical areas of officer safety and mental health.

Beyond Individual Benefits: Organizational Wellness

The benefits of improved sleep and reduced fatigue extend beyond individual officer wellness to impact the entire organization:

• Better Decision-Making: Well-rested officers make better decisions, particularly in high-stress situations that require moral judgment and impulse control.
• Enhanced Community Relations: Officers who are less fatigued, less stressed, and experiencing fewer mental health symptoms are better positioned to interact positively with the public.
• Reduced Liability: Drowsy driving and impaired decision-making due to fatigue create significant liability risks for departments. Addressing these issues proactively demonstrates organizational commitment to officer and public safety.
• Improved Retention: Creating a workplace that prioritizes officer wellness can help address the current crisis in officer recruitment and retention.

Conclusion: A Research-Based Path Forward

This study represents the first randomized control trial to test the effectiveness of a fatigue management intervention in a large urban U.S. police department. The results provide compelling evidence that addressing sleep and fatigue can create meaningful improvements in officer wellness, mental health, and safety.

The findings demonstrate remarkable outcomes: 18 minutes of additional sleep per night, a 50% reduction in self-reported PTSD symptoms, a 33% reduction in anxiety symptoms, and a 45% reduction in incidents of falling asleep while driving. These results align perfectly with Benchmark Analytics’ First Sign Precision Wellness approach, which uses data science to proactively identify officers in need, facilitate wellness planning, and deliver proven interventions.

In an era when law enforcement agencies face unprecedented challenges in recruitment, retention, and public trust, evidence-based wellness programs like First Sign Precision Wellness offer a practical strategy to support the men and women who serve and protect our communities every day.

“Evaluating the effectiveness of a fatigue training intervention for the Seattle Police Department: results from a randomized control trial” was published in 2024 in the Journal of Experimental Criminology by Lois James, Stephen James, and Loren Atherley.

*This blog post was generated with the help of artificial intelligence.