WorldWide Drilling Resource

68 AUGUST 2018 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® 7 Deadly Signs of Fatigue by Carol Setters Reprinted with Permission from Predictive Safety I remember the first couple of years after my twins were born. I didn’t know fatigue could go that deep, or that I could keep moving on such little sleep. I couldn’t really change the situation, but I never should have driven a car under those con- ditions. I was lucky that nothing ever happened. Last week, I talked to a man at a safety conference who proudly told me that he worked 12 years on the night shift at a re- finery, and he would operate on only a few hours of sleep during the day. He clearly felt working through chronic fatigue was a badge of honor. This gentleman and I both dodged a bullet. Not everyone is so lucky to escape making a terrible mistake when they’re fatigued. Consider the Exxon Valdez oil spill, or Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster. Both of these were caused by humans operating in fatigue. The problem is, nearly everyone who is fatigued, either chronically or occasionally, will tell you they can cope just fine. That’s because when you’re fatigued, your brain shuts down. Literally. If your brain doesn’t have enough energy to operate on, then it goes into “economy” mode. Your brain’s filtering mechanism, which normally sorts through input before sending it to your frontal lobe for executive de- cisions, decides now would be a good time to take a break. This floods your brain with unfiltered input, and processing of any kind becomes next to impossible. You’re overwhelmed, in a daze. However, the same mechanism shutting down is also the one we rely on to tell us that we’re in danger of making big mis- takes. At the same time our risk perception is going on the fritz, other fatigue behavior begins to set in. We all recognize the behavior. The problem is, we just aren’t in the right state of mind to do anything about it. Generally, we tend to think of fatigue as a physical challenge we can somehow “push through”. This tendency is just proof- positive of the fact when we’re fatigued, we have no idea what we’re doing. There are ways to stay alert when you’re tired if you can’t just stop and take a nap. The first way is to make sure you don’t get yourself in that situation to begin with. Sleep is good. Sleep is critical. We have to treat it like the primary practice of wellbeing it is. If you have a sleepless night for whatever reason, don’t just plow into the day with a plan to simply endure your foggy state of mind. Take some protein with you to snack on, keep your blood sugar as level as possible, and avoid the urge to hit the processed carbohydrates. Stay hy- drated. Get up and move around. Breathe deeply. Caf- feine is good in small doses, and even though you may not have any trouble falling asleep, using caffeine too late in the day may disrupt your sleep. Avoid driving if you can, or operating heavy machinery, or making big decisions, or de- ciding now is a good time to have that big talk with your spouse. You’re just not up for it. Then, make a point to go to bed early and catch up on your sleep! Notice all of the behaviors have to do with the brain’s reduced capacity. The WWDR Team is Working on the 2019 Marketing Guide Editorial Content Business Directory Affordable Classified Rates News Clips Mix and Match Deals Pinpointer Maps Buyers Meet Sellers E-News Flash Web Banners Make sure your company is included by contacting a WWDR Public Relations Professional today! 850-547-0102 worldwidedrillingresource.com