Firefighters are in the middle of a sleep study being conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Health and Human Performance Department. The goal of the study is to improve firefighter health.
Smart watches worn by Superior crew members 24 hours a day, seven days a week are gathering data about their heart rate, blood pressure and sleep patterns at home and on the job. A sleep tracker tool records deep and light sleep cycles, when subjects fall asleep and how many times they wake up during the night. Later, the data will be paired with information about the firefighters' dispatched calls.
“We’re trying to address the acute and chronic health of our first responders,” said Kim LeBard-Rankila, field work director with the Health and Human Performance Department.
The study was facilitated by an internship collaboration between the city and university that has been in place for over a decade.