The 24/72 Shift Is Spreading: What It Does to Your Body

The schedule you work isn’t just an HR line item — it’s the single biggest lever your department has over your sleep, your heart, and how long your career lasts. And right now, more departments than at any point in decades are pulling that lever. At September’s NFPA Urban Fire Forum, chiefs from major metros spent serious floor time comparing notes on replacing the traditional 24/48 with 24/72 and 48/96 schedules. If your station is still running the same calendar it ran in 1995, that conversation is coming to you.

Why the 24/48 Is Finally on the Chopping Block

The 24/48 — one day on, two days off — made sense when stations slept most nights. That era is gone. Plano Fire-Rescue in Texas reported call volume up roughly 30% over the past decade when it moved to scrap its decades-old 24/48; one of its firefighters put it plainly: “It seems like we’re awake at night more than we’re sleeping.” The chief’s argument to city council wasn’t about comfort — it was rising cancer rates, PTSD, and the simple fact that two days is often not enough to recover from a night of broken sleep.

Plano chose a 24/72: one day on, three off. Kissimmee, Florida made a similar move in 2026, and at least one Florida county department has switched to 24/72 citing health and staffing outright. Meanwhile Carmel, Indiana is piloting the other major alternative — the 48/96, two days on followed by four off — starting in 2026, with its medical director and safety officers formally monitoring firefighter health through the pilot. However the details differ, the direction is the same: longer recovery blocks between tours.

What the Sleep Data Actually Shows

The best recent evidence comes from a study published in late 2025 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (Billings and Jahnke), which tracked firefighters at a career department through a switch from 24/48 to 48/96 using wrist actigraphy — real measured sleep, not questionnaires.

The results, three months after the change: total sleep time rose by roughly 23 minutes per night, sleep efficiency climbed from about 84.6% to 88.5%, time to fall asleep was nearly cut in half, and time spent awake after falling asleep dropped by about 12 minutes. Depression scores fell significantly too, and most gains held at the six-month mark. Honest caveats: it was a small sample at a single, relatively low-call-volume department, with no control group. This is promising data, not settled science — but it’s the first longitudinal actigraphy look at the question, and it points the same direction the chiefs are already moving.

The 48/96 isn’t risk-free, though. The second half of a busy 48 is exactly where fatigue-related errors and cardiac strain concentrate, which is why some cities — Plano among them — looked at 48/96 and deliberately chose 24/72 instead as the safer option. The honest summary: 24/72 limits how deep the hole gets; 48/96 gives you more time to climb out of it. Which one wins depends heavily on your call volume.

What This Means for Your Body — Whatever Schedule You’re On

Sudden cardiac death remains the leading cause of on-duty death in the fire service, and fragmented sleep is one of the quiet drivers behind it — blood pressure that never dips overnight, elevated cortisol, impaired glucose handling. More consecutive recovery days is one of the few interventions that attacks all of that at once without costing you anything at the pharmacy. That’s why this is a health story, not a labor story.

What you can actually do:

1. Bring data, not vibes. If your department is studying a schedule change, put the 2025 IJERPH actigraphy study in front of the committee. Measured sleep improvements and falling depression scores speak louder than preference surveys.
2. Know your call volume argument. High-call urban stations are where 48/96 gets dangerous and 24/72 shines. Slower districts can often capture 48/96’s recovery benefits with less back-half fatigue risk.
3. Protect the first day off. Whatever your schedule, the first 24 hours post-tour is for sleep repayment — not a side job. Research on recovery consistently shows the rebound night does the heavy lifting.
4. Track your own sleep through any pilot. A basic wearable gives you personal before-and-after data. If your department pilots a new schedule, your numbers make you a stakeholder instead of a bystander.
5. Ask what’s being monitored. Carmel’s pilot includes formal health monitoring by its medical director. If your department is testing a schedule without measuring sleep, blood pressure, or wellbeing, ask why.

The Bottom Line

Schedule reform is the rare health intervention that’s negotiated at a bargaining table instead of prescribed at a clinic — and the momentum is real. Whether your department lands on 24/72 or 48/96, the science is converging on one point: the old two-days-off model doesn’t match the modern call load, and your cardiovascular system is paying the difference.

For more on sleep, recovery, and health optimization built for the realities of the job, visit policefire.health.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. BadgeBiohacking (policefire.health) is a comparison and review site. We may earn affiliate commissions from links on this site. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before starting any treatment.