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Open research questions in Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue

298 gap statements mined from Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,438 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

Choosing where to publish on Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue? See the ranked Psychology journals.

What the literature leaves open

  • The study highlights the need to examine the multifactorial phenomenon of fatigue in the context of informal industries.

    Cross-Sectional Associations of Work Fatigue with Repetitive-Task Risk, Sleep Quality, and Body Mass Index among Informal Fish-Smoking Workers · 2026 · DOI

  • The study notes that truck drivers are exposed to extended working hours, strict delivery deadlines, inadequate rest opportunities, and limited rest areas. The study highlights the challenge of ensuring the health and safety of truck drivers while they are travelling on the road.

    Exploring the occupational health and safety risks of truck drivers in the South African context · 2026 · DOI

  • Shift work is associated with insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and metabolic syndrome, but how consecutive meals at the same clock times differentially shape postprandial metabolism in day- and night-shifts remains unclear.

    Diurnal Variation and Impairment of Postprandial Glucose‐Insulin Responses and Lipid Rhythms in Simulated Shift Work · 2026 · DOI

  • Yet, the biological and behavioural mechanisms underlying these associations are not fully understood.

    Investigating the Risk of Obesity in European Night Shift Workers: A Study Protocol for Cross-Sectional and Mechanistic Studies in the SHIFT2HEALTH Project · 2026 · DOI

  • Prior studies have evaluated night work as probably carcinogenic to humans, but the relationship between night work and inflammation is not well understood.

    Body mass index links night work intensity with higher low-grade systemic inflammation: results from a field study in humans · 2026 · DOI

  • Taxi drivers face elevated risks of fatigue-related aberrant driving behaviours (ADBs), exacerbated by sleep-related factors, yet predictive models incorporating these factors remain underexplored.

    Predicting fatigue-related aberrant driving behaviours in taxi drivers: a multi-modal approach using physiological, sleep, and demographic data · 2026 · DOI

  • Longitudinal and objective studies are warranted to confirm causality and guide interventions.

    Sleep environment is associated with sleep control in fly-in, fly-out mining shift workers · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the impact of their sleep environment on perceived sleep control in this population remains underexplored.

    Sleep environment is associated with sleep control in fly-in, fly-out mining shift workers · 2025 · DOI

  • Despite convergent studies on cognitive aging, the differential alterations in brain network topology between the elderly and young individuals during vigilance decline remain unclear.

    Brain Network Analysis Reveals Age-Related Differences in Topological Reorganization During Vigilance Decline · 2025 · DOI

  • While positive emotions are known to boost cognition and behavior, their potential role in fatigue recovery and the underlying neural mechanisms remain underexplored.

    Watching Positive Videos Facilitates Mental Fatigue Recovery: A Task fMRI Study · 2025 · DOI

  • Limited studies have explored the impact of different variables such as night work durations, intensities and chronotype on cardiometabolic risk.

    Elevated cardiometabolic risk markers in evening chronotype shift workers: a case–control study in male workers · 2025 · DOI

  • While the impact of travel on physical performance has been studied, its effect on cognitive performance remains unexplored.

    Immediate Effects of Overnight Long-Haul Travel on Physical and Cognitive Performance and Sleep in Professional Male Rugby Union Players (a 2-Part Study) · 2025 · DOI

  • Although experimental studies suggest that melatonin inhibits intestinal tumor proliferation, epidemiological evidence for a relationship between night shift work and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk is lacking.

    Night shift work and risk of colorectal cancer: a prospective cohort study among 56 477 female nurses in the Netherlands · 2025 · DOI

  • This study identified that there is insufficient training regarding sleep and shift work management strategies, potentially leading to occupational health and safety concerns.

    Sleep and fatigue management strategies: How nurses, midwives and paramedics cope with their shift work schedules—a qualitative study · 2024 · DOI

  • Future research is needed to explore how to equip healthcare shift workers with the skills to successfully manage their schedules to mitigate the negative impact that poor sleep and fatigue has on the health and safety of themselves and their patients.

    Sleep and fatigue management strategies: How nurses, midwives and paramedics cope with their shift work schedules—a qualitative study · 2024 · DOI

  • However, there are a lack of nutritional intervention studies conducted amongst night workers, subsequently contributing to a lack of evidence-based guidelines for night workers.

    Understanding perceptions about the health effects of night working and the barriers and enablers to taking part in nutritional research: A qualitative study among night workers in England · 2024 · DOI

  • Given the importance of inhibitory control in everyday behaviour, future research should investigate the neural and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying this relationship and explore its impact in clinical populations.

    A meta-analytic investigation of the effect of sleep deprivation on inhibitory control · 2024 · DOI

  • Data standardization remains challenging, and the clinical application of emerging technologies is limited by challenges related to data accuracy, interoperability, user acceptance, and ecological validity.

    Injury prevention in fatigue-prone nursing environments: a comprehensive review of strategies centered on work design, human factors engineering, and safety culture · 2026 · DOI

  • Implementation is constrained by resource limitations, alarm burden, and deficiencies in safety culture. Data standardization remains challenging, and evaluation commonly relies on injury incidence, near-miss reporting, sleep quality, and workforce retention.

    Injury prevention in fatigue-prone nursing environments: a comprehensive review of strategies centered on work design, human factors engineering, and safety culture · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need for reliable, real-time driver monitoring solutions that can detect drowsiness at an early stage. Traditional driver drowsiness detection methods have limitations.

    An Explainable Real-Time Driver Drowsiness Detection System Using Vision Transformers and Behavioral Fatigue Indicators · 2026 · DOI

  • The United States and China were leading contributors, but international collaboration was sparse.

    From Occupational Hazard to Public Health Concern: A Bibliometric and Knowledge‐Mapping Analysis of Sleep Disorders Among Nurses Worldwide (1985–2025) · 2026 · DOI

  • While both work and nonwork factors are known to influence sleep and fatigue, few studies have examined their simultaneous and multiple mediating effects on health in night shift nurses.

    Exploring Pathways Linking Work and Nonwork Factors to Sleep, Fatigue, and Health in Night Shift Nurses: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis · 2025 · DOI

  • Longitudinal studies to examine the causal relationships between repetitive-task risk, body mass index, and fatigue, - Studies to investigate the effects of interventions aimed at reducing fatigue and improving occupational health in informal…

    Cross-Sectional Associations of Work Fatigue with Repetitive-Task Risk, Sleep Quality, and Body Mass Index among Informal Fish-Smoking Workers · 2026 · DOI

  • Further studies can investigate the impact of OHS risks on truck drivers' job security, - Research can explore the effectiveness of interventions to mitigate OHS risks in the trucking…

    Exploring the occupational health and safety risks of truck drivers in the South African context · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigate other shift schedule characteristics, - Assess temporality between exposure and potential mediators, - Examine the effects of night work on other health…

    Body mass index links night work intensity with higher low-grade systemic inflammation: results from a field study in humans · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) Shift work is associated with insulin resistance, dyslipidaemia and metabolic syndrome, but how consecutive meals at the same clock times differentially shape postprandial metabolism in day- and night-shifts remains unclear (“Diurnal Variation and Impairment of Postprandial Glucose‐Insulin Responses and…”, 2026); (2) The biological and behavioural mechanisms underlying these associations are not fully understood (“Investigating the Risk of Obesity in European Night Shift Workers: A Study…”, 2026); (3) Prior studies have evaluated night work as probably carcinogenic to humans, but the relationship between night work and inflammation is not well understood (“Body mass index links night work intensity with higher low-grade systemic…”, 2026); (4) Taxi drivers face elevated risks of fatigue-related aberrant driving behaviours (ADBs), exacerbated by sleep-related factors, yet predictive models incorporating these factors remain underexplored (“Predicting fatigue-related aberrant driving behaviours in taxi drivers: a…”, 2026); (5) There is a need for reliable, real-time driver monitoring solutions that can detect drowsiness at an early stage (“An Explainable Real-Time Driver Drowsiness Detection System Using Vision…”, 2026). 298 gap statements have been mined from Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 1,438 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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