We all know the saying to help us remember to adjust our clocks for the daylight savings time changes (this Sunday in case you are wondering). But, what can we do to help workers adjust to the effects of the time change? A few studies have examined these issues but many questions remain on this topic including the best strategies to cope with the time changes.
 Experts say employees should be allowed to take a nap at work. Reuters Todays' post is shared from medicaldaily.com Fatigue is inevitable during any long work day, and sometimes coffee is just not enough to get most people through their midday slump. British sleep experts are now saying that bosses should allow their employees a nap during the day and the option to make their own schedule to help increase productivity. Millions of people fail to get enough sleep during their week and are forced to compensate over the weekend when their work has already suffered. “It’s best to give your brain downtime,” Vincent Walsh, professor of human brain research at University College London told Cheltenham Science Festival. “I have a nap every afternoon. It’s only since the industrial revolution we have been obsessed with squeezing all our sleep into the night rather than having one or two sleeps through the day.” A recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health revealed that around 41 million American workers are not getting the seven to nine hours of sleep recommended by the National Sleep Foundation. Sleep deprivation is putting these people and their co-workers in danger of serious injury or death. Walsh says our obsession with sleeping only at night may be hindering our ability to be more creative. Most of our creative thoughts come to us during periods of relaxation when the brain makes new... |
By Tara Culp-Ressler on December 5, 2013 at 2:21 pm
"Sleep Deprivation Is A Public Health Issue That’s Deadlier Than You Think"  Indeed, by some researchers’ estimations, “drowsy driving” is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Both can double the risk of a traffic accident, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that about 100,000 of the annual car crashes in the U.S. directly result from driver fatigue. Teens are particularly at risk for driving while drowsy, a reality that’s led some parents to push to start high school later in the day. The issue is especially serious among transportation workers, who often literally have hundreds of lives in their hands. According to the Huffington Post, multiple public transportation accidents — not just on trains, but also on buses and airplanes — have been attributed to sleep-deprivation over the past decade. According to a 2012 survey from the National Sleep Foundation, about one fourth of these workers admit that a lack of sleep has affected their recent job performance. And many of them also acknowledge that this issue... |
 After laying the groundwork with months of public education efforts, the FAA on Wednesday confirmed it plans to implement a new policy requiring special screening of pilots with excess weight or other factors that increase their risk of suffering from sleep apnea. To maintain their licenses, those aviators will have to be evaluated by a physician who is a sleep specialist. The FAA eventually also plans to expand the effort to identify air-traffic controllers at greater risk for sleep apnea. Once a pilot has been diagnosed with the condition—marked by sleep deprivation that causes daytime fatigue—he or she will have to undergo treatment before getting approval to return to the controls. In a statement, the FAA said the updated guidelines to physicians are designed to help pilots and boost aviation safety "by improving the diagnosis of unrecognized or untreated" forms of the sleep disorder. For private or weekend pilots especially, the impact could be dramatic. In 2011, the FAA identified about 125,000 pilots who were considered obese, making them potential candidates for testing under an expanded policy, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the largest national membership organization representing private aviators. There... |
DID YOU KNOW? 100,000 crashes each year are caused by fatigued drivers55% of drowsy driving crashes are caused by drivers less than 25 years oldBeing awake for 18 hours is equal to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08%, which is legally drunk and leaves you at equal risk for a crash How can you tell if you are “driving while drowsy”? Here are some signs that should tell a driver to stop and rest:* Difficulty focusing, frequent blinking, or heavy eyelids* Daydreaming; wandering/disconnected thoughts* Trouble remembering the last few miles driven; missing exits or traffic signs* Yawning repeatedly or rubbing your eyes* Trouble keeping your head up* Drifting from your lane, tailgating, or hitting a shoulder rumble strip* Feeling restless and irritable Are You at Risk? Before you drive, check to see if you are:* Sleep-deprived or fatigued (6 hours of sleep or less triples your risk)* Suffering from sleep loss (insomnia), poor quality sleep, or a sleep debt* Driving long distances without proper rest breaks* Driving through the night, mid afternoon or when you would normally be asleep* Taking sedating medications (antidepressants, cold tablets, antihistamines)* Working more than 60 hours a week (increases your risk by 40%)* Working more than one job and your main job involves shift work* Drinking even small amounts of alcohol* Driving alone or on a long, rural, dark or boring road Specific At-Risk Groups The risk of having a crash due to drowsy driving is not... |
Federal data suggests that 15 to 33 percent of fatal automobile crashes are caused by drowsy drivers, but very little research has addressed what factors play a role in operating a vehicle in this impaired state. New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is revealing that short sleepers, those who sleep less than six hours per night on average, are the most likely to experience drowsy driving, even when they feel completely rested. The study is published in the October issue of the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.
“Falling asleep at the wheel is a major cause of road accidents. It might even be more of a problem than drunk driving, since it is responsible for more serious crashes per year,” said corresponding study author Michael Grandner, PhD, instructor in Psychiatry and member of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology. “We already know that people who are sleep deprived in the laboratory have impaired driving performance, but we haven’t been able to better define what sleep profiles and patterns put drivers in the general population at the highest risk.” Previous research on drowsy driving has utilized results from laboratory experiments, but the new study, utilizing data from the CDC’s 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), evaluated individuals in the general population. BRFSS is an annual, state-based, random digit-dialed telephone interview survey of... |
