I’m Tired

Posted February 12th, 2007

“I’m Tired.” That’s an answer often heard when one asks, “How are you?” In an informal survey I took with a group of youth, two out of ten got eight hours a sleep per night. The others got between five and seven. How about you? Are you tired? The purpose of this speech is to provide some information and research about the effects of sleep deprivation and some suggestions on managing fatigue.

There is only one proven way to recover from fatigue. The proven way is to sleep, uninterrupted, for eight hours in each 24 hour day. Studies by the National Institute of Health show that the average night’s sleep has decreased from about nine hours to about seven over the past fifty years. Once humans began to use artificial light to vary the length of the day; this led to the decrease in the length and the quality of sleep began to vary considerably from night to night.

I remember staying with grandparents who went to bed around dusk and got up around dawn. And they also took a nap right after lunch, except they called it dinner. Now most of us stay up till 11 PM or after, yet we may still get up before dawn, according to a Wall Street Journal article I read recently. We are burning the candle on both ends.

The way we live causes one’s circadian rhythm from settling into a pattern, and creates a state of perpetual semi-jet-lag. Our bodies’ rhythms attempt to appropriately adjust our alertness, blood pressure, and such for particular times of day. When we confuse this cycle, problems occur with our alertness and eventually with our health. The world today is a 24-7-365 society and the economic engines never stop. Those engines require human attention for operations, maintenance, and fuel.

Let’s think about how fatigue might affect you and me, when it comes to safety. These industrial accidents occurred in the early hours of the day, and fatigue was determined to be a contributing factor – Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, BP Texas City Refinery, and a number or pipeline spills as documented by the National Transportation Safety Board. Let’s make it more relevant, in case we don’t work in hazardous industries.

In the U.S., drowsy drivers are responsible for a fifth of all motor vehicle accidents and some 8,000 deaths annually. It is estimated that 80,000 drivers fall asleep at the wheel every day, 10% run off the road, and every two minutes, one of them crashes. About 11 million people say they’ve had an accident or a near accident because they dozed off or were too tired to drive, according to the NSF 2005 survey. The state of New Jersey now has a vehicular homicide law that includes driving without sleep for more than 24 hours as recklessness. Dr. Drew Dawson, a sleep researcher in Australia, has conducted research that indicates inadequate sleep has the same effects on drivers as alcohol – decreased alertness, slower reaction times, impaired judgment, and drowsiness. The number of vehicle accidents is greater on the Monday after Daylight Savings Time begins in the spring than any other day.

Now, let’s consider performance in the workplace. The fatigue from sleep deprivation affects:

• Ability to maintain vigilance and attention levels
• Awareness and perspective of the environment around us
• Poor memory, poor decisions, bad mood, nodding off
• Reaction times
• Motor coordination skills

It is hard to estimate the toll sleep deprivation takes on people’s productivity, but according to the National Sleep Foundation, the annual cost in lost worker productivity due to sleeplessness is about $18 billion dollars. I have found that the tendency to be irritable, frustrated, and contrary increases as the amount of sleep decreases. We may find ourselves doing and saying things that are harmful to our careers. Watch those late night e-mails to colleagues.

The third area is the health effects of sleep deprivation. A study at Columbia University found that people who sleep less than six hours a night are twice as likely to have high blood pressure as those who get more sleep. Lack of sleep can also contribute to life-threatening obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. About 50 million to 70 million Americans suffer from the health effects of sleep-disorders, lack of sleep, and extreme daytime sleepiness. These health effects add about $16 billion to the U.S. health care bill and costs industry $50 billion each year.

The solution is simple: Sleep between 7 and 8 hours every night.

• Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
• Keep your bedroom dark and quiet – no TV, no computer or other distractions.
• Limit caffeine and alcohol, particularly close to bedtime.
• Get regular exercise, but not in the hours before bedtime.

You may be thinking, “That sounds great, but you don’t know the demanding schedule I have.” Here are some other tips, if you have to manage fatigue in other ways besides the best way.

• Obtain sufficient sleep, even if this means breaking up the sleep patterns into several periods of sleep during a 24 hour period.
• Make strategic use of caffeine, and remember our bodies can build up a tolerance to caffeine over time. Don’t abuse energy drinks in order to stay awake.
• Take a nap most days. An article in today’s Atlanta Journal Constitution noted the positive effects of naps on heart health.
• If planning a trip, plan rest intervals before and during the trip.
• Get a good night’s sleep
• Don’t drive in the late afternoon and through the night
• Talk to passengers or self, sing along with your music
• Schedule a break every two hours
• Stop sooner if you get sleepy.

The only safe solution to fatigue is sleep. When tired, stop and go to sleep.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Managing Fatigue.