Software engineers have high risk of unhealthy insomnia, study says

Computerworld - Computer programmers have an especially hard time falling asleep, which leads to a lower quality of life, according to a small study of 91 software engineers in India.

Insomnia is bad news for software engineers' mental health and deserves greater attention, warned researchers Sara Sarrafi Zadeh and Khyrunnisa Begum at the University of Mysore in India.

In a study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, the authors found that 56% of the participants had mild or severe insomnia, compared to 23% in the general population. In contrast to what other studies have shown, younger software engineers were more likely to be insomniacs than their older counterparts.

Insomnia can cause daytime problems such as fatigue, irritability, memory impairment and loss of productivity. Left untreated, it has also been linked to severe depression and coronary heart disease.

Because software engineers are at high risk for health problems caused by insomnia, the authors called for sleep assessments during medical checkups, and employer-provided "lifestyle management programs" that teach habits conducive to better sleep.

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