Research Program

This interdisciplinary approach is a unique contribution, but there are also several added values due to the collaboration between research groups. One such is that we focus on some of the new work problems of modern society (e.g. boundaryless work or being locked in) and link them, not only to stress, but also to health outcomes, including sleep, fatigue, health perception, and sick leave. The latter is a strong outcome in itself, but is also a factor of risk and exposure, the effects of which are evaluated within the center. Other important foci are serious health outcomes such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and mortality. Longitudinal epidemiological approaches of large cohorts are central in much of this work, but also psycho-biological field studies.

Another added value is the introduction of sleep/restitution as part of the stress mechanism hypothesizing that impaired rcovery is as deleterious as directe effect of stress, as well as fatigue - the most common health symptom in society - and health perception, together with efforts to understand the mechanism for how these factors interact. The latter also includes efforts to demonstrate and understand their psychobiological mechanisms (through, for example, polysomnography, immunology, brain scanning, heart rate variability, actigraphy) in experiments and field studies.

A third added value is the integrated studies of treatment and interventions in long-term stress exposure, using indicators of sleep, fatigue, health perception, and stress. A special strength is the close link to occupational health and implementation.

A fourth added value is the methodological development of common tools and approaches in most of the areas mentioned above.