Stress and Recovery Signatures from Wearable Biosignal Data in the Production Environment

Abstract

Production work involves time pressure, variable workload, and shift schedules that may contribute to sustained psychophysiological strain. Wearable sensing can support continuous, low-burden monitoring of stress and recovery and may inform resilience-oriented workplace interventions. This pilot study examined stress and recovery signatures in an industrial electronics production context by combining multi-day wearable biosignal tracking with validated self-assessments. Sixteen employees, predominantly shopfloor operators, participated in a one-week field study across four shifts, including two day shifts and two night shifts. The sample included 8 women and 8 men (M age = 47.3 years, SD = 10.7). Participants wore a biosignal tracker during work, leisure time, and sleep. Measures included heart rate, heart rate variability[DS1.1][l1.2] (HRV), baseline calibration during sitting and standing, and questionnaires assessing resilience, perceived stress, well-being, affect, and short-term recovery-stress states. Analytics of wearable data focused on shift-level HRV changes and rule-based bouncing-back features, including stress peaks, peak amplitude, and recovery time. Results indicated mostly normal-to-high resilience, low-to-normal perceived stress, and generally preserved well-being, although some participants showed reduced well-being and high perceived stress. The short version of Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4) total scores were negatively associated with HRV, and day shift analyses linked decreasing HRV to increasing mental strain. Additionally, the rate of stress peaks that caused long-term recovery periods was positively associated with the change in short-term physical-strain scores. The findings support the feasibility of wearable biosignal analytics for exploratory stress and recovery assessment in production work.

Keywords: Wearable Biosignal Sensors, Occupational Stress, Resilience, Recovery Time, HRV, Bouncing-back Features, Production Work

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007373