Fatigue management – getting a better night’s sleep

Fatigue management – getting a better night’s sleep

Have you ever been awake in the middle of the night doing mental gymnastics? Do you find it difficult to get to sleep or stay asleep?  Consider this research: 51% of Australians don’t get enough quality sleep. And, if you’re on night shift, lack of sleep is compounded by a lighter, poorer quality sleep during the daytime.

If you work in the transport industry, you may be required to complete your fatigue management training. You can do this by completing an online fatigue management course.

A fatigue management course will take you through the science of sleep and causes of fatigue. During a single night’s sleep, we go through a number of sleep cycles.  A normal sleep cycle is 90 minutes long. In a typical night’s sleep, we experience 4 or 5 of these 90-minute cycles.  During each cycle, a lot happens to our brains, as we travel through five distinct stages of sleep. The first 4 last approximately 80 minutes. The fifth stage, making up the last 10 minutes of each sleep cycle, is called Rapid Eye Movement Sleep – or REM sleep, when we dream. The further you are into your night’s sleep, the less time you are spending in the deeper sleep stages.

To function at our best, we need 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep each night. That allows us to have the 4 or 5 full 90-minute sleep cycles that our bodies naturally require. If you don’t pay back your sleep debt, you can negatively impact your health and safety, as well as your work performance. Why do we lose sleep and go into sleep debt? There are many reasons and several of these are related to the type of work that you do, including: working long hours, having unpredictable work hours, shift and night time work, a second job and even temperature, noise and drinks with caffeine such as coffee and energy drinks. Did you know that sleep apnoea is an illness quite common in men, and also women? It is a common cause of sleep loss and occurs when the muscles in the throat relax while you sleep, causing you to stop breathing for a short time. After your brain registers this, you wake up. You may not even be aware that you have sleep apnoea, because many sufferers drift straight back to sleep. This can happen several hundred times a night and leave you feeling fatigued during the day. A fatigue management course will teach you how to reduce your fatigue levels.

Here are some tips to you with your fatigue management:

• Avoid alcohol
• Don’t exercise too close to bedtime
• Avoid having a TV in your bedroom
• Turn off your phone
• Sleep in a quiet, dark and cool room with fresh air
• Invest in a comfortable bed
• Take a warm bath before bedtime, and
• Create a bedtime ritual

Fatigue management training is a valuable tool for improving work performance and safety.

Book this course now!