12-hour shifts best kept to not more than 8 consecutive days, according to study

Workers scheduled for more than 8 consecutive 12-hour shifts operate under fatigue-induced impairment comparable to being drunk, according to a study of Australian miners by researchers at James Cook University (Queensland, Australia). The miners' schedule has them working 14 days in a row. Researcher Dr. Anthony Carter says that after 8 days of such work, worker's performance is similar to a person's with a blood alcohol level of .05.

The study's authors recommend limiting strings of 12-hour shifts to no more than 8 days.

Source: The Australian Business

Related Posts:
* Shiftwork schedule factors: work-rest ratios and predictability
* Recognizing fatigue in shiftworkers
* Best practices for managing a shiftwork operation

Recognizing fatigue in shiftworkers

It is important for shiftworkers to be able to recognize fatigue’s signs and symptoms and for managers and co-workers to know what to look for in others. Fatigue affects hand-eye skills, judgment, decision-making, responsiveness, and more. Fatigued workers take greater risks and make more errors.

Here are some warning signs to watch out for:

• Degraded performance while driving, monitoring equipment, operating and maintaining machinery, performing medical procedures, etc. This translates into degraded vigilance and decision-making and your margin for error, or safety margin, is decreased.
• Poor memory (forgetful), poor decisions, apathetic, lethargic, bad mood, and nodding off.
• Decreased hand-eye coordination, and poor communication and information processing.
• Poor decision-making -- fixation on certain aspects of a situation to the neglect of other information.
• Poorer performance despite increased effort. People are poor judges of our own performance levels so it is important for co-workers to watch for this.
• Slowed reaction time: it takes longer to react to unsafe conditions, and to shut down equipment in time and to avoid any roadway obstructions.
• Reduced vigilance and lower alertness levels.
• Lapses in attention: inability to concentrate and keep a visual scan of instruments and gauges.
• “I just want to get finished” attitude. We tend to press the envelope of safety more because we are too tired to realize how badly the fatigue is affecting our performance, or we just want to be finished. We also accept lower standards.

When you see these signs in yourself or others, it is important to implement appropriate fatigue countermeasures, for the health and safety of the shiftworker and the safe and smooth running of the operation.

Source: http://www.lakehurst.navy.mil/nlweb/safety/documents/traffic-safety/Shiftwork-Pamphlet.pdf

Related Posts:

* Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more

* Boost your alertness with coffee or a nap? Or both?

*Foods that help you stay alert or help you sleep

Sleep: for shiftworkers, and everyone else, there's no substitute

Sleep is obviously a critically important topic for shiftworkers. But, it's equally important for the rest of the world too. That's why there's so much written about sleep -- how to get young children to sleep, the effects of teens' sleep on academic performance, the delights of an afternoon nap, or whatever. So, it's no wonder there's so much written about sleep.

The important thing to remember is that you need sleep. Everyone does. And most people need 7 or 8 hours of a sleep in a 24-hour period. While there are some people that can live on 4-5 hours of sleep, there are VERY few such people. Many who think they sleep that little actually add sleep at other times of the day, dozing during meetings and taking other intentional or unintentional naps.

And, you cannot train yourself to need less sleep.

You may get used to operating in an impaired state but your need for sleep remains the same. If you don't get the sleep you need you reduce your alertness, impairing your safety and your performance. There is also substantial evidence that you impair your learning ability, your cognitive abilities, and your longterm health.

And, beyond a very limited range you can never make up lost sleep. The person who holds the record for continuous wakefulness stayed awake more than 10 days. Afterwards, he slept for 14 hours. That's it. The other sleep lost was never recovered. So the learning and health impacts cannot be reversed. You've got to consistently get the sleep you need to perform your best in the short term and to maintain your health in the long term. It's that simple.

Over the weekend I read yet another article about sleep. It's nothing groundbreaking but it provides a very good overview. In Saturday's edition of The Cleveland Daily Banner (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) Dr. Rob Coombs wrote a short article on sleep that provides a good, basic overview of sleep -- the 4 sleep stages, the need for sleep, what makes us sleep, etc. You might want to check out Speaking on Sleep.

We've covered sleep and sleep tips many times on this blog, and I know we will continue to do so frequently. Some recent articles include:

• Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more
• Handling long night shifts: 9 shiftworkers tips
• Lack of sleep for New Zealanders costs billions

Sleep well,

Ed

Shiftwork schedule factors: work-rest ratios and predictability

As part of our continuing discussion of shiftwork scheduling factors, today we're talking about time on the job compared to time off. We'll also discuss the predictability of the schedule. A fixed or regularly rotating schedule may be daunting at times but an unpredictable schedule, such as those worked traditionally on the railroads takes an even greater toll.

The more a person works, the less time he or she will have for rest. People who work an 8-hour shift will have 16 hours left in a day to do everything else, and also to get some rest. People who work a 12-hour shift have only 12 hours to do everything else and to rest. In a situation like this, the extra work hours mean more tiredness and less time for rest.

This is a two-edged sword. For example, many times a worker's home responsibilities, such as taking care of children, cannot change from day to day. So, if workers do overtime or a 12-hour shift, they still must take care of home duties. Since these duties take the same amount of time every day, workers may sacrifice rest and sleep after a long workday.

This example shows us how important the length of shift can be in terms of stress and fatigue.

When looking at work versus rest, we also must consider how many breaks are taken during the shift and the length of breaks. Depending on the type of work and length of the day, several short breaks might be better than a few long breaks. Short breaks might be better particularly for jobs requiring heavy physical labor.

How tired a worker is also depends partly on how many days in a row he or she works. Fatigue builds up over several workdays, as well as over a single workday. This happens especially when a per-son gets less sleep between workdays than on rest days. As we mentioned earlier, a worker might not get enough sleep between long workdays because of home responsibilities. So, if a person works several days in a row, for example, six or seven, a good deal of sleep might be lost. Then the worker feels quite tired during the last one or two shifts.

How Regular or Predictable?
Most jobs have a very regular, set schedule. A worker usually knows the schedule ahead of time. Even if the shift times change, a worker will know several days before-hand. This makes it easy to schedule other non-work activities, such as making sure somebody is at home when the children get there. Other jobs are not so regular or predictable.

For example, health care workers might respond to emergencies that keep them on the job much longer than expected. Or, they might be on call for such emergencies. At a factory, a breakdown or a last-minute call for a product might keep workers at the plant working overtime. Railroad workers sometimes work off a “call board.” This means they can be assigned to a train at the last minute to move a “just-in-time” order of goods.

If workers cannot predict their schedules, it is difficult to get adequate rest. Maybe they just get to sleep when they are called back to work, or maybe they have just worked a long shift when an emergency happens. So, they stay at work a few more hours. Maybe they are on call and never get deep, satisfying sleep because they are always listening for the phone. Some people call this “sleeping with one eye open.”

Foods that help you stay alert or help you sleep

An important part of shiftworker lifestyle training is fatigue countermeasures and understanding how to manipulate your alertness -- both to maintain safe performance when you need it and to be able to get to sleep when you can.

When it comes to using substances to control alertness, we tend to think right away of caffeine, and perhaps some controlled substances, to maintain alertness and sleeping pills or melatonin to induce sleep. But there are many foods which also have alertness-increasing 0r -decreasing effects that you should be aware of.

Foods the reduce alertness
These foods have tryptophan or l-tryptophan and will help induce sleep.

• Bananas & Pineapple
• Cheese
• Eggs
• Ice Cream
• Lobster
• Meat (Beef)
• Milk
• Potatoes
• Turkey
• Valerian Tea

Foods that increase alertness
These foods contain tyrosine and/or caffeine and have stimulating effects.

• Avocados
• Beef (Aged)
• Cheese (Aged)
• Chicken & Fish
• Chocolate
• Coca Cola & Coffee
• Figs (Canned)
• Garlic
• Ginger Ale
• Horseradish
• Persimmon
• Pickled Herring
• Sour Cream
• Soy Sauce
• Sprouts
• Yogurt

Other recent National Shiftwork Information Center posts on shiftworker lifestyle training include:

• Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more
• Shiftwork training to improve alertness and safety on the night shift

Have a good day, or night!

Ed

Source: The U.S. Navy (clicking on this link will oepn a PDF file on your computer)

Best practices for managing a shiftwork operation

In our previuos post, we discussed shiftworker lifestyle training as an important step for employers of shiftworkers to implement. Beyond shiftworker lifestyle training, a wide range of factors affect alertness and performance, and therefore the health, and safety of shiftworkers. Some of the most prominent are:

• Hiring practices
• Length of shift
• Shift schedule
• Rotating or fixed
• Overtime
• Work environment
• Overnight food selection.

In future posts on the National Shiftwork Information Center blog we'll look at each of these areas. Let us know your tips and practices so we can include them here.

Further reading:
* Shiftwork schedules in the 24/7 world
* Why managers in 24/7 need to pay attention to the special needs of shiftworkers
* Shiftwork schedules: fixed or rotating
* Shiftwork schedule factors: work-rest ratios and predictability
* Shiftwork schedule factors: speed and direction of rotation
* Shiftwork schedules: time of shift
* Hiring shiftworkers: best practices for managers in 24/7 operations
* Adapting to night shifts -- helping shiftworkers adapt and avoid shiftworker maladaptation

Shiftworker lifestyle training: fatigue countermeasures, sleep strategies, and more

From time to time articles appear in the general press about the dangers of shiftwork. It's important to understand the risks, but it's equally important to focus on practical steps to improve the health, safety and work performance of shiftworkers in 24/7 operations. One relatively easy, and relatively inexpensive step 24/7 business operators can take is to provide their employees with shiftworker lifestyle training.

Shiftworkers' alertness, hence their ability to perform effectively, is dependent on many factors. Some of those factors are beyond their control, such as their work schedule, but others are directly affected by the individual's actions. Lifestyle training means giving workers the knowledge they need to make appropriate adjustments to their lives in order to ensure health and safety.

As the name suggests, successful lifestyle training affects a worker's entire life, not merely his or her time at work. Adjustments on the part of shiftworkers will therefore be contingent upon acceptance by spouses and family members who also will be affected. For this reason, we recommend including spouses in lifestyle training whenever possible.

Lifestyle training should start with a non-technical discussion of circadian rhythms and how they effect human alertness. Shiftworkers, whether nurses, police officers, pilots, factory workers, or whomever, must understand there is a fundamental difference between day shift work and night shift work. Humans have evolved over millions of years to be awake during the day and asleep at night. Unless shiftworkers acknowledge this basic fact, the rest of the training process is meaningless.

After this first step, lifestyle training should address the following areas and provide specific details on fatigue countermeasures:

Sleep
Seven or eight hours of uninterrupted sleep are important to everyone's health and well-being. Our bodies are not programmed to sleep during the day. As a result, daytime sleep typically reduces both the quantity and quality of sleep. Making sure the sleeping room is dark, quiet, well-ventilated, and not too warm is an important step. A high-quality mattress also improves sleep.

Nutrition
People who work the night shift need to know about general nutrition, but that alone is not enough. Our bodies simply were not designed to eat at night. Your stomach won't digest full meals, so you should eat in smaller portions. Spicy, rich, and fatty foods are particularly hard to handle at night. Careless eating habits can cause indigestion, discomfort, drowsiness, and weight gain.

Family and social life
All shiftworkers have to think about many things differently than 9-to-5 workers. This is particularly true if you are trying to maintain a family and social life. Celebrating holidays a week early, videotaping children's birthday parties, and breakfast dates are just some of the accommodations you can make to keep connected to the rest of your life. People who emphasize communication and plan effectively have shown that work and family can mix and that single people can have a social life.

Job performance and safety
You need to emphasize safety because accidents are more likely to occur at night than on other shifts. One study found the number of accidents is 23 percent higher on the night shift. With knowledge of the factors that affect alertness, you can avoid safety lapses, improve work performance, and prevent falling asleep at the wheel.

Lifestyle training improves job performance, as well as employees' health, safety, and quality of life. This has been most thoroughly documented in a report on CANALERT '95, an alertness assurance program funded by Canada's three largest railroads, which took before-and-after measurements of a broad range of criteria. [More about CANALERT '95 at the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers website or at Railway Age.]

The improved health and quality of life, in turn, improve morale and tend to lower absenteeism and turnover rates. Absenteeism and turnover are particularly problematic in round-the-clock operations because of the difficulty of getting substitute workers on short notice and training new workers in a continuous operation environment.

Shiftworkers: have you received some sort of lifestyle training? Was it helpful? Did it include your spouse?

24/7 Managers: does your company provide shiftworker lifestyle training? What are the costs and benefits?

Share your opinions and experiences. Post a comment now.

Boost your alertness with coffee or a nap? Or both?

The December issue of the journal Sleep published a study on the alertness-enhancing benefits of two widely used and readily available fatigue countermeasures -- caffeine (in the form of coffee) and napping. The French study looked at 12 subjects in their early 20s and 12 subjects in their early 40s.

The findings? Caffeine proved to be the more effective fatigue countermeasure. Napping also proved effective but was most effective for the younger group. The older group did not benefit as much from a nap.

This is a small study and there's always a danger in drawing far-reaching conclusions based on minimal data. But, it's interesting to note that at least for this test, subjects performance improved more using one cup of coffee (about 200 mg of caffeine) than they did using a placebo (decaf coffee) or a 20-minute nap.

I was also interested to see that the study put the test subjects behind the wheel and on a French highway for 125 miles. Wow. That seems dangerous. I don't think I'd want to do that in the United States if I was running that study.

In the real world
You're not forced to choose one or the other. If you're highly fatigued, have a cup of coffee and then immediately take a 20-minute nap. The caffeine takes a while to kick in anyway, and a short nap will get you a sleep benefit without making you groggy. This can be a particularly useful strategy when you know you'll need to be driving home from work after a long night shift. Be careful about overdoing the coffee so you'll be able to get to sleep when you get home. Also, if you're really fatigued, consider not driving at all -- take a cab, go to a nearby motel, or find some other alternative.

What are the fatigue countermeasures you use to boost your alertness?

A blog for Shiftworkers and their Managers

In the spring of 1995, I co-founded Circadian Information with Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, a world-renowned expert on circadian alertness and fatigue. Our intent was to create a publishing business that would serve the growing number of businesses that operated 24/7, to help them improve the health, safety, and alertness of their employees. We also had some publications for individual shiftworkers, to help them and their family members successfully handle the demands of an atypical work schedule.

We published the Shiftworker Family Calendar (now the Working Nights Family Calendar), Shiftwork Alert (a monthly newsletter for managers in 24/7 operations), Working Nights (a monthly newsletter for shiftworkers and their family members), Alertness on Track (for railroad workers), and numerous booklets and management reports. We were fairly successful at that and these publications, now part of Circadian Technologies, Inc., continue to this day.

I have never lost my interest in the subject of alertness and performance for shiftworkers and others who work at night. I have also always been aware that the type of expert information we published at Circadian Information, is only one piece of the puzzle. That's why I founded the National Shiftwork Information Center.

Shiftworker-to-shiftworker help and advice is an important element. A lot of this stuff is not rocket science but it can take a little while to learn. I'm creating this blog -- the National Shifwork Information Center -- to provide a forum for shiftworkers to share information among themselves. We will talk about important topics like sleep, napping, diet, caffeine/stimulants, lifestyle, human physiology, human factors, work performance, safety, and whatever else you want to discuss. I'll also provide links to other online resources I find that you might find useful.

Although I've covered this topic for a long time I don't know all the answers. But, I know that somewhere out there, someone does. And, your feedback on my posts, your suggestions, your critiques of other web resources, will all help make this a more valuable resource for you and the millions of people who work at night. So let's hear from you.

Note about the term "Shiftworker"
For lack of a better word, I tend to use the word "shiftworker" to describe anyone whose schedule has them working more than half of the time outside of the 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. time frame. I realize that includes the factory and utility workers we tend to think of as shiftworkers, but it also includes healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses, technicians, etc.), transportation workers (pilots, flight attendants, ground crews, railroad engineers and conductors, truck drivers, merchant mariners, etc.), public safety (police, firefighters, military, secret service, etc.), and many others who need to be able to maintain alertness in the overnight hours to ensure effective and safe performance.

Please tell your friends and colleagues about this resource. It exists to help you, and them, improve health, safety, and quality of life. I hope that sounds pretty good. And it's free!

Ed Coburn
Executive Director and Blogger-in-Chief
National Shiftwork Information Center