Jason Woods, CLCP, ST&LP Instructor
Linework is physically taxing by nature, and adding on-call duty or storm restoration work can make it even tougher. After the work is done, more work may be required at home. We all have certain things in life that we need to take care of: family, livestock, pets, home projects, and this list could go on and on. I know that on my list of things, sleep was usually the last thing on that list.
Getting enough quality sleep at the right time can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and safety. Sleep deficiency can cause you to feel very tired during the day. You may not feel refreshed and alert when you wake up. Sleep deficiency also can interfere with work, school, driving, and social functioning. You might be sleep-deficient if you often feel like you could doze off while:
• Sitting and watching TV
• Sitting still in a public place, such as a movie theater, meeting, or classroom
• Riding in a car for an hour without stopping
• Sitting and talking to someone
• Sitting quietly after lunch
• Sitting in traffic for a few minutes
Sleep deficiency can cause problems with learning, focusing, and reacting. You may have trouble making decisions, solving problems, remembering things, managing your emotions and behavior, and coping with change. You may take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes. In our industry and trade, mistakes can have tragic consequences. A lack of sleep can limit the ability to pay attention, react quickly and make good decisions. A person who gets too little sleep may have a higher risk of drowsy driving which can lead to a serious accident. According to the CDC, people who sleep 6-7 hours a night are twice as likely to be involved in a sleep-related crash as compared to those sleeping eight hours or more. What do you think the odds are for those who only get five?
Getting enough quality sleep at the right times helps you function at your peak level throughout the day. As mentioned earlier, people who are sleep deficient are less productive at work and school. They take longer to finish tasks, have a slower reaction time, and make more mistakes. After several nights of losing sleep (which is routine while on call) even with a loss of just 1-2 hours per night, your ability to function suffers as if you haven't slept at all for a day or two. Lack of sleep also may lead to microsleep. Microsleep refers to brief moments of sleep that happen when you're normally awake. You can't control microsleep, and you might not be aware of it. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and then not remembered part of the trip? If so, you may have experienced microsleep. Even if you're not driving, microsleep can affect how you function. If you're listening to a lecture, for example, you might miss some of the information or feel like you don't understand the point. You may have actually slept through part of the lecture and not even realized it.
Many people simply choose to ignore the risks of sleep deficiency. In fact, they may not even realize that they're sleep deficient. Even with limited or poor-quality sleep, they may still think they can function well. For example, sleepy drivers may feel that they are able to drive. Yet studies show that sleep deficiency harms your driving ability as much - if not more - than being drunk. It's estimated that driver sleepiness is a factor in about 100,000 car accidents each year, resulting in about 1,500 deaths. Sometimes we just need to pull over and take a 10-minute power nap. Drivers aren't the only ones affected by sleep deficiency. It can affect people in all lines of work, including healthcare workers, pilots, students, lawyers, mechanics, and lineworkers.
The amount of sleep you need each day will change over the course of your life. Although sleep needs vary from person to person, American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recommends that a person over the age of 18 should get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each day. If you regularly lose sleep or choose to sleep less than needed, the sleep loss adds up. The total sleep lost is called your sleep debt. For example, if you lose 2 hours of sleep each night, you'll have a sleep debt of 14 hours after a week. Some people nap in order to cope with sleepiness. Naps may give a short-term boost in alertness and performance. However, napping doesn't supply all the other benefits of nighttime sleep, so you can't really make up for lost sleep. Some people sleep more on their days off than on workdays. They also may go to bed and wake up later on their days off. Sleeping more on days off might be a sign that you aren't getting enough sleep. Although extra sleep on days off may help you feel better, it can upset your body's sleep-wake rhythm.
The bottom line is that sleep is really important, and when we get less than seven hours of sleep on average per night, there are consequences for how we think and react to people around us. Not to mention the increase in hazards in an already hazardous environment. So, the next time you are off on rest time…. get some sleep!
