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Abstract
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Shift rosters should be designed to give individuals the opportunity to obtain adequate sleep and thereby operate at an effective level. Once the roster is designed and validated against a scientific bio-mathematical model, the actual sleep that workers are obtaining needs to be quantified and verified to confirm that it is providing sufficient supporting sleep.
This paper outlines the sleep opportunity versus sleep obtained for shift work operators in a mining environment. It also analyses whether there were differences in the individuals' sleep patterns and individual effectiveness. Twelve operators voluntarily wore actigraphs for a month covering a number of shift roster cycles to determine their individual sleep/wake patterns. Each individual was given a comprehensive individual report and feedback on their statistics, positive behaviours and areas for improvement in their sleep hygiene. It also identified any abnormal sleep patterns for further investigation.
The roster analysis utilising FAST® showed that the roster was designed to provide an opportunity for eight hours of good sleep. On average the operators recorded 7:17hrs sleep/day (SD = 0:42min), however five out of the 12 operators recorded less than the recommended minimum average of 7hrs/day.
Actigraphs are one tool that can be used as a part of a holistic fatigue management system to determine individual sleep/wake patterns and provide a potential opportunity for improvement in individual sleep hygiene and increased individual effectiveness.
Language: en |