Sleep deprivation workers’ compensation

Cases involving workers who injure themselves on the job are subsumed by the workers compensation system. The relationship between workplace-caused sleep deprivation and injury is another area in which the traditional scope of liability has been expanded. 

Sleep deprivation and sleep disorders question the scope of the definition of injury and work function in workers compensation cases. Generally, unless a clear link can be shown between the sleep disorder or deprivation and the scope of employment, courts are unwilling to grant compensation to the worker. Courts have regarded sleep and work as separate and distinct. 

One other area of recent debate in workers compensation cases involves shift-work-maladaption syndrome. These cases usually involve workers who are unable to adapt to working a third shift. Workers asserting these claims usually complain of being unable to adapt their personal sleeping schedules to the late shift, and suffer from continued sleep deprivation. American courts have rejected shift-work-maladaption syndrome as a compensable injury under the workers compensation definitions of injury, and generally hold that harm occasioned by the mere scheduling of hours is not enough to state a claim (53). A worker must show that a specific injury has been caused by a specific workplace condition or job function. 

Despite a shrinking economy and higher-than-normal unemployment numbers, worker output in the early quarters of 2002 showed increased productivity (55). Fewer workers are being asked to do more. Whether this trend will result in increased litigation concerning sleep deprivation and workers compensation claims is yet to be determined. 

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