UW-Superior sleep study to help local firefighters manage health and wellness
The Burnsville Fire Department leads a parade past the front entrance of M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville.
Christine T. Nguyen | MPR News File
The medical community has hammered it to us over and over at this point: we should all probably be getting more sleep.
First responders often run on tricky sleep schedules. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Superior are conducting a sleep study on firefighters in their city. The goal of the study is to improve firefighter’s acute and chronic health. Dr. Kim LeBard-Rankila is field work director at the Health and Human Performance department in Superior. She joined host Cathy Wurzer to discuss the study.
Click the audio player above to listen to their conversation.
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Audio transcript
CATHY WURZER: I'm glad you're with us here on Minnesota Now from NPR News. I'm Cathy Wurzer. The medical community has been loud and clear about this for a while now. Most of us need more sleep.
First responders especially often run on erratic sleep schedules. That's why researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Superior, are conducting a sleep study on firefighters there. Why? We'll ask Dr. Kim Lebard-Rankila.
She's here to tell us all. She's a field work director at the Health and Human Performance department at UW-Superior. Welcome, Doctor. How are you?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Good morning, Cathy. I'm doing great this morning. How are you doing?
CATHY WURZER: I'm fine. Thanks for being with us. Say, I'm curious here. How did you choose firefighters as your subjects for the study?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: The city of superior and UW-Superior collaborate. We've been doing this for about 10 years now, and we supply a employee wellness intern each semester to work with the city employees. And as the fire department is one of the departments within the city building, we survey each department and ask what interests the employees. And the fire department shared with us, probably five years back pre-COVID that they would be interested in sleep education because they were tired.
They have these 48-hour shifts where you can literally get 17 calls in a 24-hour span, and you're not able to sleep. And so after COVID-- we attempted to do this pre-COVID. We wrote a grant. Didn't get the funding.
COVID hit. We ran another grant. Got the funding. And as soon as we were able to start it without any COVID restrictions, we were ready and able, and just hit the road running with them. It was their idea, and so we just facilitated it.
CATHY WURZER: It's a good idea. My friends who are first responders all have sleep problems to some extent. Is that a byproduct of the stress of their jobs?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: It is. It's the stress of the job, being a first responder-- firefighters, police officers. I would almost gander to say maybe ambulance drivers, nurses, doctors-- anyone in any type of allied health public service type job where you have shift work. I will also throw in radio broadcasters.
CATHY WURZER: [INAUDIBLE] get up early.
[LAUGHTER]
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Yes. Yeah, and so the sleep cycle isn't what our genetic internal clocks are regulated to do. And yeah, it is very detrimental. Sleep is so vitally important. I mean, it contributes to our metabolism, our memory, our immune system, our bodily functions-- every aspect of our health. And I think it's overlooked often.
CATHY WURZER: I know you're just starting this, but do the firefighters tell you that the sleep problems affect their performance on the job at all?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: You know what? They actually didn't complain about sleep at all. They were just aware and had a gut sensation that they could get better sleep.
So one of the issues-- so Superior is a rural community, and we're the Twin Ports with Duluth. But Superior still has the emergency alarms go off at all three stations, which means all three stations wake up, even though only one station has to address the medical emergency or fire emergency. And I think our hope is, when we bring the data to the powers-that-be, they will see the detriments of sleep deprivation. And hopefully, we can run bigger cities, and only have the fire alarms go off at the station that needs to address the fire or the medical emergency. And then if it is a larger concern, then the fire alarm can go off at all three stations.
CATHY WURZER: So how are you studying this? I understand you're using smartwatches?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: We are. We are using a MorePro fitness tracker watch. And we had to find a watch that was waterproof. And it tracks sleep cycles per day-- so when they fell asleep, when they woke up, when they got up, the deep sleep, light sleep, and hours up.
It tracks blood pressure, pulse, step. And you can also program it to track different physical activities. But the sleep, blood pressure, and pulse are the three tools on the watch that we are using.
CATHY WURZER: Have you heard at this point from the firefighters? Have you made any recommendations at this point to them?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Yes, so prior to the sleep study, our interns have been doing multiple educational presentations-- stress reduction, different sleep environment, good sheets, good blankets, good air quality, reduce noise, not using any blue light equipment prior to, not eating spicy food, getting enough exercise, all the realms of the fitness world. During the sleep study, we actually have an intervention tool being used, and it's white noise. We were thinking about using essential oils, and then we were thinking about using weighted blankets.
But not everybody would like the smell of lavender, which is supposed to help you sleep. The weighted blankets need to be dry cleaned, so that became a conscious financial strain. So we chose white noise machines.
So the last month and a half of the study, we have white noise machines in each sleeping corner of the fire stations. And the firefighters are to pick the white noise that they find enjoyable or tolerable or they like, and then use that at the station only, because basically, the grant didn't cover bringing white noise to everyone's homes. And the feedback is, some of them already were using white noise, and they like it. Some of them had never used it before, and actually found that they also liked it.
And it was a variety. Some of them like rain, some like streams, some of them like the fan noise. Some of them like-- it's called a drone. It's a drone noise. And then there's some relaxation music type options also.
So the white noise machines have been received very well. They're open to anything that is beneficial to their overall health. They're really a great group of people to work with.
CATHY WURZER: So do you know, Kim, are there similar studies being done in other cities in Wisconsin, Minnesota to help first responders?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Well, there is research on firefighters and sleep. So I know others have done research on it. I don't know currently if anyone else in Minnesota or Wisconsin are doing any type of research. But because we are a rural community, and we're still-- and I'm just going to use this term lightly, still doing the old school alarm going off at all stations.
The bigger cities, like in Minneapolis and Milwaukee and such, they only have the alarms go off at the station that needs to make the call. So they have moved to that process already, and Superior hasn't. So we're hoping once the powers-that-be see the sleep study, and hear both the data outcomes and offer in more research to them, that they will accommodate, and only have the alarms go off at one station.
CATHY WURZER: So if this works-- which appears that it is working right now, could you see maybe doing sleep studies on police officers, EMS individuals? I mean, this could be interesting.
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: It is. Actually, we have already been brainstorming a little bit of doing a sleep study with the Superior Police Department. Because like you said, first responders, multiple different careers with these altered schedules, not working during the day, but working day through night, or night, or getting up at the crack of dawn when even the birds aren't awake yet, it is detrimental. So yeah, our next step now-- we have to write another grant to get more watches and what have you, would be to see if the Superior Police Department would be interested in this.
CATHY WURZER: OK, sounds great. I appreciate your time, Kim. Best of luck.
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Thank you. We are very lucky to have the first responders we do in Superior. They're a wonderful group of people.
CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Dr. Kim Lebard-Rankila. She's the fieldwork director at UW-Superior.
First responders especially often run on erratic sleep schedules. That's why researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Superior, are conducting a sleep study on firefighters there. Why? We'll ask Dr. Kim Lebard-Rankila.
She's here to tell us all. She's a field work director at the Health and Human Performance department at UW-Superior. Welcome, Doctor. How are you?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Good morning, Cathy. I'm doing great this morning. How are you doing?
CATHY WURZER: I'm fine. Thanks for being with us. Say, I'm curious here. How did you choose firefighters as your subjects for the study?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: The city of superior and UW-Superior collaborate. We've been doing this for about 10 years now, and we supply a employee wellness intern each semester to work with the city employees. And as the fire department is one of the departments within the city building, we survey each department and ask what interests the employees. And the fire department shared with us, probably five years back pre-COVID that they would be interested in sleep education because they were tired.
They have these 48-hour shifts where you can literally get 17 calls in a 24-hour span, and you're not able to sleep. And so after COVID-- we attempted to do this pre-COVID. We wrote a grant. Didn't get the funding.
COVID hit. We ran another grant. Got the funding. And as soon as we were able to start it without any COVID restrictions, we were ready and able, and just hit the road running with them. It was their idea, and so we just facilitated it.
CATHY WURZER: It's a good idea. My friends who are first responders all have sleep problems to some extent. Is that a byproduct of the stress of their jobs?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: It is. It's the stress of the job, being a first responder-- firefighters, police officers. I would almost gander to say maybe ambulance drivers, nurses, doctors-- anyone in any type of allied health public service type job where you have shift work. I will also throw in radio broadcasters.
CATHY WURZER: [INAUDIBLE] get up early.
[LAUGHTER]
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Yes. Yeah, and so the sleep cycle isn't what our genetic internal clocks are regulated to do. And yeah, it is very detrimental. Sleep is so vitally important. I mean, it contributes to our metabolism, our memory, our immune system, our bodily functions-- every aspect of our health. And I think it's overlooked often.
CATHY WURZER: I know you're just starting this, but do the firefighters tell you that the sleep problems affect their performance on the job at all?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: You know what? They actually didn't complain about sleep at all. They were just aware and had a gut sensation that they could get better sleep.
So one of the issues-- so Superior is a rural community, and we're the Twin Ports with Duluth. But Superior still has the emergency alarms go off at all three stations, which means all three stations wake up, even though only one station has to address the medical emergency or fire emergency. And I think our hope is, when we bring the data to the powers-that-be, they will see the detriments of sleep deprivation. And hopefully, we can run bigger cities, and only have the fire alarms go off at the station that needs to address the fire or the medical emergency. And then if it is a larger concern, then the fire alarm can go off at all three stations.
CATHY WURZER: So how are you studying this? I understand you're using smartwatches?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: We are. We are using a MorePro fitness tracker watch. And we had to find a watch that was waterproof. And it tracks sleep cycles per day-- so when they fell asleep, when they woke up, when they got up, the deep sleep, light sleep, and hours up.
It tracks blood pressure, pulse, step. And you can also program it to track different physical activities. But the sleep, blood pressure, and pulse are the three tools on the watch that we are using.
CATHY WURZER: Have you heard at this point from the firefighters? Have you made any recommendations at this point to them?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Yes, so prior to the sleep study, our interns have been doing multiple educational presentations-- stress reduction, different sleep environment, good sheets, good blankets, good air quality, reduce noise, not using any blue light equipment prior to, not eating spicy food, getting enough exercise, all the realms of the fitness world. During the sleep study, we actually have an intervention tool being used, and it's white noise. We were thinking about using essential oils, and then we were thinking about using weighted blankets.
But not everybody would like the smell of lavender, which is supposed to help you sleep. The weighted blankets need to be dry cleaned, so that became a conscious financial strain. So we chose white noise machines.
So the last month and a half of the study, we have white noise machines in each sleeping corner of the fire stations. And the firefighters are to pick the white noise that they find enjoyable or tolerable or they like, and then use that at the station only, because basically, the grant didn't cover bringing white noise to everyone's homes. And the feedback is, some of them already were using white noise, and they like it. Some of them had never used it before, and actually found that they also liked it.
And it was a variety. Some of them like rain, some like streams, some of them like the fan noise. Some of them like-- it's called a drone. It's a drone noise. And then there's some relaxation music type options also.
So the white noise machines have been received very well. They're open to anything that is beneficial to their overall health. They're really a great group of people to work with.
CATHY WURZER: So do you know, Kim, are there similar studies being done in other cities in Wisconsin, Minnesota to help first responders?
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Well, there is research on firefighters and sleep. So I know others have done research on it. I don't know currently if anyone else in Minnesota or Wisconsin are doing any type of research. But because we are a rural community, and we're still-- and I'm just going to use this term lightly, still doing the old school alarm going off at all stations.
The bigger cities, like in Minneapolis and Milwaukee and such, they only have the alarms go off at the station that needs to make the call. So they have moved to that process already, and Superior hasn't. So we're hoping once the powers-that-be see the sleep study, and hear both the data outcomes and offer in more research to them, that they will accommodate, and only have the alarms go off at one station.
CATHY WURZER: So if this works-- which appears that it is working right now, could you see maybe doing sleep studies on police officers, EMS individuals? I mean, this could be interesting.
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: It is. Actually, we have already been brainstorming a little bit of doing a sleep study with the Superior Police Department. Because like you said, first responders, multiple different careers with these altered schedules, not working during the day, but working day through night, or night, or getting up at the crack of dawn when even the birds aren't awake yet, it is detrimental. So yeah, our next step now-- we have to write another grant to get more watches and what have you, would be to see if the Superior Police Department would be interested in this.
CATHY WURZER: OK, sounds great. I appreciate your time, Kim. Best of luck.
DR. KIM LEBARD-RANKILA: Thank you. We are very lucky to have the first responders we do in Superior. They're a wonderful group of people.
CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Dr. Kim Lebard-Rankila. She's the fieldwork director at UW-Superior.
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