Staggered Schedule May Not Harm Firefighter Sleep, Nicole Bowles, PhD, Says

How should you treat sleep disturbances in patients who work in the firefighting profession? Nicole Bowles, PhD, assistant professor at Oregon Health & Science University, discussed this topic at SLEEP 2025, the 39th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, on Tuesday, June 10, in Seattle.1

Firefighters must frequently stay awake to respond to late-night calls, putting their sleep on hold, which could lead to circadian misalignment. During the meeting, Bowles discussed the staggered working schedule of 1/3/2/3 among firefighters a part of Portland Fire & Rescue.

“It's 1 day on, 3 days off, 2 days on, 3 days off,” Bowles explained to HCPLive in an on-site interview.

The Portland Fire & Rescue adopted the 1/3/2/3 schedule in March 2022 to better accommodate family and social obligations affected by the need to recover sleep on days off.2 This schedule describes 2 days in, 4 off, 4 days in, 8 off.

“For this data set, we've updated it, so we have additional firefighters across Oregon who are working on the 1/3/2/3 schedule,” Bowles said. “For the most part, where our results are still what we're seeing for Portland, we see that on the 1/3/2/3, they're getting slightly less sleep and they have slightly worse performance on a test called the psychomotor vigilance test.”

Bowles pointed out an interesting finding—firefighters on the 1/3/2/3 schedule rate their sleep better than it is, reporting being more alert. This finding was consistent with other observations made with the 1/3/2/3 schedule, including better work-family conflict or fewer conflicts with family and work.

“They're able to recover in different ways,” Bowles said. “So again, maybe not getting as much sleep, but they're feeling their cup in other ways, more hobbies, more engagement with family. They're able to detach more from work, and so that's why they might feel better despite not actually getting more sleep. And so, I conclude the session by discussing that I don't think the 1/3/2/3 is necessarily a worse schedule.”

Still, she said specific actions can be taken to improve firefighters’ sleep health, such as adjusting work start time to later than 8 am or encouraging them to take a nap when they arrive home or to go to bed early.

“We're not seeing huge detriments because of [1/3/2/3], but again, [we should be] encouraging firefighters to get more sleep,” Bowles said.

Bowles has no relevant disclosures.

References

1. Bowles N, Billings J, Reichenberger, D, et al. Rest Under Fire: Examining Sleep and Recovery in the Firefighting Profession. Presented at SLEEP 2025 in Seattle on June 9, 2025.

2. SWIFT: Shiftwork in Firefighters. Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences. https://www.ohsu.edu/oregon-institute-occupational-health-sciences/swift-shiftwork-firefighters. Accessed June 10, 2025.