The Night Shift, Nurses and Sleep Deprivation
There’s been a lot in the news lately about people who work the late shift and have trouble staying awake, in particular about air traffic controllers. One group of people who seem to have developed a system to avoid the same problems of falling asleep on the...Sleep Deprivation And Air Traffic Control
Lack of sleep can make doing almost everything we need to do much more difficult. Trying to do a job while sleep deprived often leads to poor job performance, something we all want to avoid. This can be particularly problematic for those who make important...
Shift Worker Alert: Curb the Caffeine
Coffee is most everyone’s number one choice for a pick-up-me. Have to work late? Coffee. Couldn’t get a full night’s sleep? Coffee. Need a jolt of energy to stay focused and alert? Coffee.
You can count on coffee, or really anything with caffeine in it, to get you through it. But watch out if you’re among those who work at night and sleep during the day: there’s new evidence that coffee can really tie a knot in your attempts to get some sleep when you need it most.
Pilot Fatigue to Blame?
The Federal Aviation Administration is rewriting its rules that govern flight time for pilots and their required rest periods in order to reduce the chances of fatigue. It will be the first update to the rules in decades and will utilize research that wasn’t available before.
Does that make me feel better the next time I fly?
Not Fit to Fly
It’s hard to legislate sleep. As an employer you can certainly set rules and guidelines, hoping your employees show up refreshed and ready to perform, but you can’t really enforce or police it—even when lives depend on it.
Hearing about the fatigue factor involved in Continental’s February plane crash on a cold, icy night near Buffalo, New York has been horrifying. According to the latest reports from the NTSB, the main cause of the crash is being blamed on the crew’s lack of experience and lack of sleep (lack of proper conduct in the cockpit, too, which certainly stems from a lack of experience and sleep).