Sleeping on the job to be encouraged

According to research released by RMIT, not only could alertness and performance be improved, but we could see fewer major disasters if fatigue is addressed.

Dr Melinda Jackson, a registered psychologist specialising in sleep disorders who is responsible for the research, said, “There is mounting evidence that napping during a shift can improve alertness and help maintain performance in the early hours.

“But critical to the beneficial effect of the nap is the length of the sleep and working out the best times to take a nap.”

Jackson said evidence suggested that fatigue played a role in major disasters like the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in Ukraine, the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger and the grounding of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker shortly after midnight on 24 March 1989.

“All of those tragic incidents occurred during the early hours of the morning when the controllers were working through a night shift,’’ she said.

Jackson’s ongoing sleep research is likely to be paramount to shift workers around the world.

It canvasses the consequences of sleep disturbance and shift work on cognition, mood and brain function.

Jackson was part of a team of researchers whose work at the Washington State University revealed how sleep loss impacted on people making critical decisions in real-world situations.

The results of those findings — that sleep loss impedes important decisions — are a lesson in industries in which workers such as doctors, soldiers and emergency service workers must make life and death decisions under stress and while deprived of sleep.

Dr Jackson said far from being a worry for employers, sleeping on the job is already encouraged in some industries.

“In the aviation industry, for example, pilots rostered on long-haul flights have nap opportunities fixed in to their rosters.

“In industries like hospitals, doctors on long shifts are actively encouraged to sleep.

“And in Australia, where long distances are the norm, power naps are to be actively encouraged by people driving long distances.”

Jackson is a National Health and Medical Research Council Peter Doherty Research Fellow and RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow based in the School of Health Sciences and Health Innovations Research Institute.

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