Shift workers lose about one night’s sleep each week, but new CQUniversity research aims to use wearable tech and machine learning to help them rest more effectively.

With support from the Australian Government, Dr. Grace Vincent, Senior Lecturer School of Health, Medical and Applied Sciences at CQ University, has received a $488,579 grant to develop a digital sleep assistant tailored for Australia’s 5 million shift workers.

This tool will adapt existing physical activity tech and use machine learning to provide personalized sleep and exercise advice for those with unpredictable schedules, helping them improve their health and reduce workplace errors and accidents.

“More than a third of Australia’s workforce work non-standard hours, outside 9am-6pm, and we know these workers are nearly twice as likely to make errors, have accidents or be injured on the job,” Dr Vincent tells Clinton.

“Studies show that body clock disruption, limited time for sleep, and not having opportunities for exercise are behind many of these issues – so this project wants to help these workers find optimum times in their schedule for sleep and exercise.”

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