How many hours per day can I be required to work?

I have a medical condition that I did not disclose to my employer when I was hired on.  My medical condition is that I need to take a sleeping pill in order to get to sleep.  The warnings on this pill say that once you take it you cannot operate equipment, drive, etc etc.

My particular job has my employers wanting me to not only work a normal 8 hour day but also to do work when I get home for another 6 hours.  My job requires me to answer a lot of emails and handle requests for employees out on the field.  So after I come home from the office, they still want me to answer emails and do work at home from my computer even though I am no longer at work.  I am a salaried employee and not hourly.

With my medical condition, I need to be able to have enough time to sleep properly because I suffer from insomnia but I am not being allowed to get enough time for sleep.

Can I inform my employers that they need to provide me ample sleeping time instead of making me work since I suffer from this sleeping problem?  Do Missouri state laws allow employers to make you work that many hours a day in my situation?

You can tell them anything they want.  They don't have to believe you.  You can't expect them to change your schedule just on your say-so.  I'm not being nosy, but what exactly is your medical condition?

Let's start here.

Does your employer have at least 50 employees at your job location or within a 75-mile radius?  If not, at least 15 employees total, all locations?

Yes, there are more than 50 employees working there.

My medical conditon, as I stated before, is pretty much insomnia.  I have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep which is why I need to take a sleeping pill.  I need to be allowed the proper amount of time for a full nights sleep but my employer expects me to be awake and ready to work far more than normal which interfers in my sleep schedule.

"Do Missouri state laws allow employers to make you work that many hours a day in my situation?"

Only a few occupations restrict the number of hours an employee can legally be required to work:  physicians in training, pilots, over the road truckers.  They can require you to work as many hours as they need.  Now a court would rule that 24 hours a day on the job would be unreasonable but working from home answering emails does not preclude you from taking your sleeping pill an hour or so before quitting for the night.

"Can I inform my employers that they need to provide me ample sleeping time instead of making me work since I suffer from this sleeping problem?"

You would need to get your physician to write a letter stating that you need the reasonable accommodation of being able to take your medication at X time and 8 hours of uninterrupted sleeping time following the medication.  Whether this would be seen as a reasonable accommodation and a disability under ADA is hard to tell as just about everyone has insomnia and I suspect they will not call it a disability.  

If 24 hours is unreasonable, they what is considered resonable?

The main problem here is that I have a company cell phone which they want me to keep on me at all times.  They expect if calls or emails come in the middle of the night that I should wake up and take care of them.  This would interrupt my sleep and if I woke up, I would still be on my medication which puts me in a very drowsy state.  Thus, I cannot handle the work in the middle of the night in the condition I would be in but this is what they expect.  Can they do this?

FYI, with limited industry specific exceptions as  described above, no state limits the number of hours that can be worked in a day, and only two states, neither of them Missouri, limits the number of hours you can be required to work in a week/pay period.

"Can they do this?"

Unless you can get insomnia recognized as an ADA disability: yes.  FYI: doctors, medical personnel, and a lot of people take call and answer pagers round the clock and manage to function.  You might consider getting an evaluation at a sleep disorders center for a more viable option that will work with the requirements of your job other than medication.

I should also add if the employer can demonstrate that an essential part of the job is that you be available then the accommodation of being allowed to skip being responsive will not be granted under ADA.  You have to be able to perform the essential functions of the job WITH the accommodation.  If you have to be asleep and not answering calls then you aren't performing the essential functions.

If my company was to fire me based on this condition because they wanted me to work or be on call 20 hours per day and I just could not do that, would I be able to get unemployment?

Humans have to be able to get 8 full hours of sleep.  Without the proper amount of sleep, the human body does not have the time to recover and this can lead to getting sick, your immune system breaking down and other complications.

A lot of people function just fine on less than 8 hours sleep.  All depends on the individual.

And I am currently working two jobs; one five days a week, 9-5 with a two hour commute each way, and the other two nights a week 11pm to 7am. One day a week I work both jobs. I likewise don't remember the last time I called in sick - I think I went home early one day about three years ago.

And I likewise suffer from insomnia; between that and the two schedules if I get more than 3-4 hours sleep at a time it's cause for celebration.

So it can be done.

Well I am also diabetic and need to get a full 8 hours of sleep.

That information would have been good to share from the beginining.

Sorry.  Didn't think to mention it.