Sleep & Fatigue

Human fatigue is a physiological state stemming from inadequate day-to-day sleep and certain phases of the body’s internal clock. Most adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep every day to be fully effective during normal activities at home and at work.

Many people sacrifice sleep so they can fit more activities into each day. Too often, they believe they can adjust to this sleep restriction. Unfortunately, this is not the case. And since fatigued people are very poor judges of their own alertness levels, they may not realize that they are becoming progressively impaired.

Sleep and fatigue are critically important issues for shift workers whose natural circadian rhythms are impacted by their jobs. Shift workers are much more likely than those who have more normal work schedules to experience chronic sleep difficulties – this adds to the alertness problems already associated with work that occurs during the body clock’s low point from 2:00am to 6:00am.