NTSB says “The Captain and the First Officer were fatigued during the incident flight…”
NTSB says “The Captain and the First Officer were fatigued during the incident flight
Continue reading →Category Archives: The Fatigue Factor
The Yummiest Fatigue Fighter!
..using caffeine as a fatigue prevention strategy or a fatigue countermeasure is a no-brainer.
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Golden Rule Improves Sleep
To increase the likelihood that your 24/7 workforce will care more about getting appropriate sleep before work, and change their lives to do so, jump into their shoes and figure out how you would like to be treated in those shoes…and then, treat your workers that way.
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You don’t know how poorly you will perform….or do you?
If people are not that great at judging their own fatigue levels without a validated questionnaire, should we even consider getting them to judge how well they will perform at their current level of fatigue?
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You don’t know how fatigued you are….or do you?
When organizations are setting up their fatigue risk management systems, they will always run into the challenge of assessing fitness to start or continue duty. You will often hear people saying “We cannot simply ask our shift-workers if they are … Continue reading →
Workload has Modest Effect on How Sleepy You Feel
A recent study suggests that there might be a link between workload and sleep-related fatigue.
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Would you feel comfortable telling your boss you are fatigued?
Whether people openly and freely report fatigue levels, fatigue risks or other critical information depends highly on an organization’s reporting culture.
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Is Fatigue Training Really Necessary in an FRMS?
For example, one study showed that introducing a sleep health training program and a sleep disorders screening opportunity netted 46% fewer disability days and 24% lower odds of filing an injury report in the training attendees versus non-attendees.
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Uber Raises Awareness about Fatigued Driving
26% of all fatal and injury crashes are estimated to be related to fatigued driving and 167,000 Ontario drivers have been involved in at least one crash due to fatigued or drowsy driving.
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Fighting Fatigue Results in Financial Gains
If you reframe the problem as an opportunity, it gets really exciting. Instead of losing $80 million, look at it as an opportunity to make $80 million by addressing sleep-related fatigue issues.
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Cranky Shift-Workers: It’s not their fault!
A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study showed that the amygdala’s reaction to negative emotional stimuli is greater in magnitude/intensity and volume in people who miss a night of sleep when compared to a control group. This study also showed that the connections between the amygdala and the MPFC were weaker in the sleep deprived group. This means that the amygdala’s reactions can’t be inhibited as well by the MPFC in people who lack sleep.
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3 Rules for Napping as a Fatigue Countermeasure
If you are developing a controlled rest procedure, here are 3 rules to keep in mind.
Rule 1: Some sleep is better than no sleep.
Rule 2: The second rule is that more sleep is always better.
Rule 3: The last rule is that sleep inertia needs to dissipate before a napper can be re-engaged in safety critical activities.
W5 Jet-Lagged
Fatigue countermeasures are strategies that can be used to fight fatigue that takes hold during duty. They should not be used routinely to keep pilots, mariners or train engineers and conductors alert and safe. Instead, fatigue prevention strategies should be the mainstay for alertness and safety. If people are routinely napping on the job, then they are too fatigued probably because the fatigue prevention strategies are failing.
Continue reading →Fatigue Still Not Ruled Out in San Francisco ACA759 Close Call
Earlier this month the NTSB released an update into their investigation of the Airbus A320 that squeezed through a potential disaster by less than 59 feet. I finally found time to read through the update and it looks like the NTSB is sticking to their protocol of only releasing validated factual information. This is a good thing; it is still way too early to thoroughly identify all the causal factors. Plus, dropping hints at what they are considering would result in too much conjecture and a knee jerk reaction to stick together a patchwork of solutions.
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Close Call for Air Canada at San Francisco Airport – Was it due to fatigue?
On July 7, 2017 at 23:56 (San Francisco/Pacific Time) Air Canada flight ACA759 almost landed on a taxiway where four aircraft where waiting to take off. ACA759 missed the first aircraft by only 100 vertical feet. This could have been a terrible accident.
Continue reading →Untreated Apnea Increases the Risk of Fatigue
There is a hint in the report about how communication between the Medical Examiner and the pilot may have played a role in allowing a person with an untreated sleep disorder to continue to operate. The report said that the pilot with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) did not report any daytime sleepiness to the doctor. There are two reasons why the sleepiness may not have been reported.
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Still trying to convince the decision makers that fatigue needs to be managed?
I would argue that it would not cost anywhere near $50,000 to identify the insufficient sleepers and provide a solution. An investment of $60.00 to reap a $50,952.39 return in only one year. That’s an 84,820.65% ROI that keeps paying year after year!
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4 Things the Number 8 and Sleep Have in Common – Free InfoGraphic
4 Things the Number 8 and Sleep Have in Common – Free InfoGraphic
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9% ROI from your Fatigue Management Program
In a study of train operators they showed that fatigued operators use more heavy brake applications and less dynamic brake and throttle manipulations than alert operators. This style of train operation burns 9% more fuel and for one train route this resulted in $183,000 more fuel being burned annually by fatigued train operators than alert operators. Here’s the flip, by reducing fatigue you will improve operational efficiency and reduce fuel costs by 9%. This can put $183,000 back into your budget annually.
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Your Performance can Predict Your Fatigue…try this test to see how fatigued you might be.
A much easier way to determine a person’s level of fatigue is to measure it indirectly through performance on a psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). PVT results are strongly correlated to fatigue risk factors such as acute and chronic sleep disruption, continuous wakefulness and circadian rhythm disruption.
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