Sleepy Americans

Posted March 3rd, 2008

Next Sunday, we will set those clocks forward one hour in order to save daylight. I recall once reading that the vehicle accident rate is the highest the Monday after the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Our biological clocks and circadian rhythms do not adjust simply because we set our other time keeping devices ahead one hour.

This is National Sleep Awareness Week. An article in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution has some disturbing information for those who are on the roads. It also should heighten our concern for performing risk assessments on our jobs regularly.

The following information is from the article and/or the National Sleep Foundation.

• Between 50 million and 70 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep loss. We’re not just drowsy; we’re fatigued, stressed, irritable, and prone to anxiety.
• A new CDC study finds one in 10 adults reported not getting enough sleep every day in the past month.

The only way to avoid fatigue is to sleep for about eight hours out of every 24 hours. When I worked shift work, that seldom was achieved. When I was a manager, that seldom was achieved. There are so many things one has to do and wants to do that we get by with less than eight hours.

My advice, at least for today, is recognize that almost everyone around you, on the highways and in the workplace, is sleepy. And all of us will be out of sync for a few days after the beginning of Daylight Savings Time.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 10:14 am and is filed under In the News, Managing Fatigue.