This longitudinal study set out to examine the health-related effects of an intervention involving daily working hours being reduced from ≥7 to 6 h. However, the knowledge of the concurrent health-related effects of working fewer hours remains limited. One of the suggested approaches involves reducing the exposure to such working conditions by reducing the number of working hours. Working conditions of eldercare are often characterized by a high workload and different organizational approaches have been suggested to reduce the potentially negative health-related effects of such conditions. This randomized intervention thus indicates that reduced worktime may improve recovery and perceived stress. These effects were maintained over an 18-month period. Conclusion A 25% reduction of weekly work hours with retained salary resulted in beneficial effects on sleep, sleepiness and perceived stress both on workdays and days off. Adding gender, age, having children living at home, and baseline values of sleep quality and worries and stress at bedtime as additional between-group factors did not influence the results. Effect sizes were small (Cohen's f2<0.08). The same effects were shown for days off (P<0.006), except for sleep length. Result A multilevel mixed model showed that compared with the control group, at the 18-month follow-up, the intervention group had improved sleep quality and sleep duration (+23 minutes) and displayed reduced levels of sleepiness, perceived stress and worries, and stress at bedtime on workdays (P<0.002). Sleep quality, sleep duration, sleepiness, perceived stress,and worries, and stress at bedtime were measured with diary during one week per data collection. Data were collected at baseline and after 9 and 18 months follow-up. The intervention group (N=354) reduced worktime to 75% with preserved salary during 18 months. Participants (N=580, 76% women) worked full-time at baseline. Method Participating workplaces (N=33) were randomized into intervention and control groups. This study evaluated the impact of an intervention that reduced weekly working hours by 25% on sleep, sleepiness and perceived stress for employees within the public sector. Objective Insufficient time for recovery between workdays may cause fatigue and disturbed sleep.

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