THE HUMAN ERROR
BY GORDON DUPONT FATIGUE
FATIGUE IS SOMETHING WE HAVE ALL EXPERIENCED. IF YOU DO SHIFTWORK, THEN YOU KNOW IT ALL TOO WELL. FATIGUE IS THE NO. 1 CONTRIBUTOR TO HUMAN ERROR. AS YOU BECOME MORE FATIGUED IT IS EASIER FOR THE OTHER DIRTY DOZEN ACCOMPLICES TO “DO THEIR THINGS.” AS FATIGUE IS CONSIDERED NO. 1 AND THERE IS A LOT OF MATERIAL TO COVER, I AM GOING TO DISCUSS IT OVER TWO ARTICLES.
Let’s start with a simple quiz to
create some controversy. They are all true or false with no maybes allowed, but apply to most people. Circle what you think the correct answers are to the following:. 1. I’m Safe working when I’m a little sleepy because I can still function OK T or F
2. We can tell when we are about to fall asleep. T or F
3. Coff ee will overcome the eff ects of exhaustion. T or F
4. We can get by with 4 or 5 hours of sleep in the day for a week. T or F
5. A few drinks of alcohol help us to sleep better. T or F
6. As we get older it gets easier to sleep. T or F
7. We can usually train ourselves to wake up at a given time. T or F
8. We will wake up refreshed after an hour of sleep. T or F
9. A 15-minute nap is a waste of time. T or F
10. Being awake in excess of 18 hours is the equivalent of working with a blood/alcohol level of .08 (legally drunk). T or F
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The answers will be provided in the next article, so keep this one handy. With fatigue, the industry tends to underestimate the problem and we tend to overestimate our ability to deal with it. While we are getting better, we still have a long way to go towards accepting that we aren’t as “sleep proof”as we may think. As a teenager I would often party all night and go to work the next day, suff ering from fatigue and dehydration. OK, also with possible alcohol poisoning, but still there and ready to “tough out the day” before sleeping, unless there was another party to go to. Or how about working all day and driving 25 hours from the West coast to the Prairies where my relatives had a farm. I will admit that as I got close to my destination I started seeing cars on the road ahead of me that weren’t really there, but I only had another hour to go. Today you are in greater danger of being killed on the road by a tired driver (you?) than a drunk driver.
Fatigue may be acute, which is intense but short duration. For example, run up fi ve fl ights of stairs and you will feel fatigued (at least I will), however, after a short rest you are ready to have a go at the remaining 81 fl ights of stairs in the Empire State building stair climbing
race. Another term for acute fatigue is exhaustion. You feel beat, but a short rest or good night’s sleep has you feeling ready to go again. Chronic fatigue is the dangerous
one. It is the result of frequent recurrence and/or long duration. Chronic fatigue will require more than just one good night’s sleep to restore you to your normal, perky self. As you short change yourself of sleep, you begin to develop a “sleep debt.” We will talk a lot more about sleep in the next article, but like any debt, it must be repaid. So what are the causes of fatigue?
(There are 12 of course) 1. Long hours of being
awake: Whether you work or just lounge around will result in you becoming fatigued. Hard work may cause you to become physically tired sooner but all living creatures must sleep or they will die. Just how long can you remain
awake before you die? The world record is held by a California teenager (at the time) who stayed awake for just over 11 days (264 hours). In that time he experienced hallucinations, paranoia and mood swings. The Guinness Book of World Records refuses to accept any new “staying awake” records as it’s considered too dangerous. It has been reported that one of the many
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