Fatigue is more than just tiredness, it’s a severe problem, it’s a whole of life, whole of person problem. Fatigue is the leading cause of truck driver deaths in road crashes, with 35 per cent of truck driver deaths in 2019 resulting from fatigue crashes (NTARC 2020).
“Everyone feels a bit tired, but fatigue is a cognitive and physical impairment,” says Dr Robert Adams, Professor of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at Flinders University, SA, and Consultant Physician in Respiratory and Sleep Services at Southern Adelaide Local Health Network.
Sleep architecture
Good sleep has a structure or ‘architecture’. It starts with getting to sleep quickly, followed by a smooth flow between light sleep, deep sleep, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and dreaming sleep. According to Dr Adams, many factors can contribute to poor sleep architecture, including:
- Caffeine: can interfere with how well you get to sleep.
- Alcohol: can help you get to sleep but disturbs your quality of sleep.
- Obesity: contributes to difficulty sleeping.
- Stress: poor mental health can cause problems in getting to sleep and disrupting your sleep.
Less than five hours of sleep in a night impairs your mental and physical capabilities by around the same amount as having a 0.05 per cent blood alcohol level.
Identifying fatigue
It can be hard to recognise that you’re fatigued, not just a bit tired, but you can alert your drivers to the signs, which include:
- Feeling tired: If you’re okay in the morning but always want an afternoon nap, then you’re probably lacking in amount and quality of sleep.
- Sleep inertia: Some people naturally come out of sleep slowly, but you still feel sluggish after you’ve been up for a while, then you’re probably underdone for sleep.
- Gut problems: Sleep deprivation can be like jet lag; unsettled bowels or stomach can indicate fatigue.
- Mental sharpness: If you notice you’re not driving well, or if you’re forgetting things, there might be a problem with your sleep.
Most of these signs are internal, and even fatigued individuals may not notice them. That’s why it’s essential to look at the bigger picture and consider your drivers as people, not simply as employees.
Take a whole-person approach
Fatigue is a whole-of-life problem, so managing it requires a whole-of-life approach. When you speak to a driver about their lifestyle, you risk intruding on their private time and behaviour, but we all bring our private lives with us into the workplace.
Falling asleep in front of a computer almost certainly won’t cause a disaster for the company. Falling asleep behind the wheel of a fully loaded B-double almost certainly will.
Here are some tips from Doctor Adams on helping your drivers manage fatigue:
- Work structures: Start with the structural components, such as shift length and the time between shifts. Find flexibility where you can to give your drivers the best opportunity for high-quality sleep.
- Sleep support: Give people access to support if they’re having problems with their sleep. Behavioural therapies, talking therapies, psychological therapies all work better than sleeping tablets for insomnia.
- Lifestyle: Encourage and provide access to exercise and the ability to exercise, discourage smoking and point out the dangers of binge drinking.
- Life events: People who’ve got caring duties, children who are unwell, partners who are unwell, who are looking after elderly relatives can all have problems with their sleep and so may need closer monitoring and support.
Trust is the key. If your drivers feel comfortable discussing issues in their life which could be impacting on their sleep, you’ll be able to take a holistic approach to helping them manage their fatigue.
NTARC Major Accident Report 2020.
This article is part of NTI’s The Business of Safety series. For more tips and tools from this series, visit NTI’s The Better Business Hub.
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