By Zane Sheeran
Would you show up to work drunk? For most of us that’s a big no, but many of us are happy to go to work fatigued, oblivious to the fact that is equally as dangerous. A 1997 study [1] published in Nature concluded that moderate levels of fatigue produce higher levels of impairment than being ‘legally’ drunk. It also showed that your performance after 24 hours of no sleep is equivalent to your performance with a blood alcohol concentration
of 0.09 – that’s almost double the NZ drink drive limit! But why is tiredness so dangerous? Being tired itself is not dangerous (just like being drunk) but when you are tired your performance is reduced and you are more likely to make mistakes.
Now we know how dangerous it can be, how can we reduce fatigue at work?
-Getting 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each day.
-Having a regular sleep pattern (going to sleep and waking up the same time each day)
-Knowing your caffeine limits (It can affect you for over 5 hours)
-Avoid bright lights (Especially bluelight) for a few hours before you go to sleep
-Eat a healthy and balanced diet and exercise regularly
Some not so fun facts about workplace fatigue in commercial pilots
Quick disclaimer: if you are not a fan of flying you might want to stop reading here.
A survey conducted by the British Airline Pilots Association [2] found that 84% of pilots felt that their abilities at work were compromised due to tiredness at least once in the last six months (not too scary right, how about this next finding), 56% of pilots surveyed anonymously admitted to falling asleep whilst flying. Even more shocking out of those pilots, 29% said they awoke from their mid-flight sleep to find their co-pilot also asleep.
1 Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. doi.org/10.1038/40775
2 Prevalence of Fatigue in a Group of Airline Pilots. doi.org/10.3357/ASEM.3548.2013"
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