THE HUMAN ERROR
BY GORDON DUPONT FATIGUE Fatigue has been recognized as a
problem with flight crews for a long time and they have strict maximum hours of work regulations. However, AMTs at this time are only limited to 24 hours in any given day. Some companies, quite wisely, have established a fatigue management system (FMS) for their employees that limit their hours of work. What are the symptoms and effects
of fatigue?
1. A tired lethargic feeling As one would expect, this symptom is accompanied with an ever stronger desire to sleep or at least rest. You may begin to “nod off.”
2. Constant yawning This is an involuntary action that indicates that you are tired, bored or copying someone else who is yawning. No one is sure why when one person yawns, more than 30 percent of people present will begin to do the same thing, but they do.
3. Begin consuming more coffee and other fluids, eating more junk food and for some, smoking more
All these are in an effort to combat the feeling of fatigue
4. Mood becomes withdrawn You may become more irritable and anger more easily. You become less likely to want to converse. You become more stressed by the effort to remain awake.
5. Greater difficulty concentrating on a task. Your memory becomes diminished. You begin to have inaccurate recall. You begin to forget peripheral tasks. A form of “tunnel vision” causes you to concentrate on only the main task
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to the exclusion of all others, like reconnecting a pipe disconnected for the main task. You might read a paragraph (excluding FAA publications) and not recall what it was you just read. You begin to revert to “old habits.”
6. Attention span is reduced You begin to have a degraded problem solving ability and everything becomes more difficult, requiring greater concentration. Reaction time slows as the memory diminishes. A greater stimulus might be required for you to respond. By that I mean that a normal 1/8-inch crack might have to be more than ½-inch long before you see it. You will also begin to lessen your visual span.
7. You begin to develop a “don’t care” attitude This is the biggy as you are unaware of your poor work performance, deterioration in judgment and decision making skills.
So what can we do about it?
SAFETY NETS AT HOME 1. Try to keep regular hours If you can get in the habit of going to sleep and getting up at the same time, it will be easier to get and stay asleep.
Also, if you usually get eight hours sleep per night, aim to get the same number of consecutive hours sleeping during the day after a midnight shift.
2. Exercise regularly Exercise a couple of hours before going to bed so that you burn off the adrenalin, etc., produced from the stresses of the day and you’ll feel physically tired as well.
3. Don’t go to bed stuffed or starved.
Both will make it harder to sleep.
4. Avoid stimulants like coffee, tea or alcohol Coffee takes about 30 minutes to kick in and lasts about four hours. Alcohol is actually a depressant, but if you take more than two to four drinks before going to bed, it will interrupt your sleep pattern. More than four drinks and you are “passing out,” not going to sleep, and you will pay the next day.
5. Invest in a good bed We often spend thousands of dollars in a great stereo system that you listen to perhaps a few hours per day yet sleep in a bed that your grandmother gave you in her will. Bed springs “work harden” and sag over time, so spend the money where you spend almost one third of your life.
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