Every fourth conductor and pilot admits that sleepiness interferes with his work at least once a week. According to a US poll commissioned by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), every fifth pilot admits to making a mistake at work due to sleepiness.
Fighting sleepiness is one of the biggest problems in the work of pilots and drivers, according to the Sleep in America survey conducted in 2012. It was commissioned by NSF by WB&A Market Research. More than a thousand adult Americans were studied, including 202 pilots, 203 truck drivers, 180 rail employees and 210 bus, taxi and limousine drivers, and a control group of 292 (people not employed in transport).
In this survey, transport professionals answered questions about sleep and work habits and problems. The results are surprising. About a quarter of the surveyed conductors (26%) and pilots (23%) admitted that sleepiness at least once a week has an impact on the way they perform their work. A similar problem was reported by one sixth of people not related to transport (17%).
Every fifth pilot (20%) admitted to making a serious error due to sleepiness. Every sixth conductor (18 percent) and truck driver (14 percent) said that he was one step away from such a mistake.
The subjects relatively often complained about the amount and quality of sleep. More than half of the conductors (57%) and every second pilot (50%) reported that during the working week they had a good night’s sleep rarely or not at all. A similar problem is felt by 44 percent. truck drivers and 42 percent. non-transport workers. Bus, taxi and limousine drivers turned out to be the most satisfied with sleep during the working week. An unsuccessful third (29%) complained about the lack of sleep.
In these competitions, the margin of error is extremely small. Transport professionals should manage their sleep so that they can do the best later at work, says David Cloud of the National Sleep Foundation.
Insomnia does not bypass anyone, but attacks with varying degrees of severity. On average, one in ten American respondents reported that they had fallen asleep at the wrong time and place, e.g. during a meeting or behind the wheel (the questions about sleepiness used in the survey were based on criteria specified by doctors). 11 percent were considered sleepy. surveyed pilots, conductors and bus, taxi and limousine drivers, 8 percent truck drivers and 7 percent. people from the control group.
Although pilots take special care of sleeping the right number of hours, every tenth of them still falls under the + sleepy + category. You can’t. Who wants to risk on a scale of one in ten when boarding a plane with a sleepy pilot? – warns Captain Dr. Edward Edens of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
According to the survey, many people professionally associated with transport decided that the graphic designer does not leave them enough time to sleep. Almost half of the conductors (44%) and over a third of pilots (37%) complained about the schedule that disturbed their rest. A similar problem is seen by a quarter of people from the control group and truck drivers (27% each) and every fifth bus, taxi and limousine driver.
Experts point out that shift work of transport professionals is more irregular than in other industries. Only six percent of pilots and less than half (47 percent) of conductors have the same daily schedule. In people not related to transport, it is 76 percent.
The survey also asked about naps. It turned out that professional drivers and pilots cut them off more often than representatives of other professions. Half of the surveyed pilots (58%) and conductors (56%) take a nap at least once a week, compared to about a quarter (27%) of the representatives of the control group. Every fifth pilot, bus, taxi and limousine driver, and 16 percent each. truck drivers and conductors take three to five naps a week.
Details on the survey are available at:
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/press-release/sleepy-pilots-train-operators-and-drivers
NSF experts advise that people who complain of excessive sleepiness seek professional help to help determine the cause of the problem. At the same time, they suggest that the good use of time allocated to sleep is favored by, inter alia, falling asleep and waking up at regular times. It is worth making sure that the bedroom serves only for relaxation (and not, for example, for extra work or watching TV), and just before going to bed repeat a relaxing ritual – take a warm bath or listen to music. Exercise is recommended, although just before falling asleep should not be too lively.