Welcome to Focus on Fatigue InterDynamics‘ FaidSafe® newsletter
Issue 20 – October 2012
Dear Reader,
Are you anxious and/or having difficulty feeling vitality?
In an increasingly busy world filled with technology, uncertainty, and ever-increasing drives for efficiency, there seem to be no shortage of choices of things to be anxious about and “lose-sleep” over. Who amongst us hasn’t felt tired or run-down at some point from either too much to do, or that active mind that just won’t let go of the things that are of concern to us, resulting in hours of frustrating and debilitating tossing and turning.
Hopefully for most of us, these episodes are intermittent and only temporarily impact on our inter-personal relationships and ability to perform our duties at home and at work. Recent Australian research has shed light on some of the associated financial and human costs for those that suffer however on a regular basis from sleep disorders such as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, insomnia and Restless Leg Syndrome. Further details can be found in this editions news article: “Sleep disorders cost Australia more than $5 billion per year”.
The first Feature Article in this edition discusses some of these common lifestyle drivers and the effects of sleep deprivation and sleep disorders (many of which are un-diagnosed), whilst the second looks at how an organisation can gain visibility into these and other factors that affect their workers safety and productivity when at work.
Another more topical cause of sleep-less nights around the world has been the suite of high-profile sporting events on offer to watch over the last couple of months. The “In the News” section contains reports of individuals whose health has sadly been impacted in relation to these events and some tips for getting back on track after those late nights of barracking. Don’t worry! The happy news is that the human body is amazingly resilient if we give it the appropriate time and space to recover with the sleep it requires.
We hope that you find this edition of Focus on Fatigue interesting, insightful and useful in the effective management of fatigue within a risk-based approach.
How do you manage fatigue in the workplace? If you have successful stories, initiatives or comments we would love to hear from you.
Work safely.
Peter Mushenko & Fiona Johnston
InterDynamics Shiftwork Services
Featured Articles
How modern lifestyles breed sleep disorders
Shawn Parsons – “How modern lifestyles breed sleep disorders”, – narcoleptics.net, June 21, 2012
According to certain studies supported by the National Sleep Foundation itself, many people have an undiagnosed sleep disorder because sleepiness seems to have become the norm in the modern workplace—you may be sleepy, but so is everybody else, so here, have a cup of coffee. This situation of pervasive sleepiness enables sleep disorders to hide in plain sight: it is not easy to point out who has only some mild sleep deficit and who has a full-blown sleep disorder.
More…
Known unknowns: how to enlighten the blind-spots of your worker and organisational fatigue risk profile
Peter & Tu Mushenko, InterDynamics FaidSafe Consultants
When it comes to assessing the risk profile of the individual, most organisations have little visibility to things such as the attitudes and experience of the workforce to fatigue and the organisations fatigue management plan, as well as the propensity towards sleep disorders, and other lifestyle and attitudinal factors that can be telling in how exposed with relation to fatigue-risk their workers are. An understanding of the risk factors and current coping mechanisms employed can lead to targeted education, and the refinement of fatigue management initiatives and procedures to increase their effectiveness.
InterDynamics has developed a simple, practical and informative survey process to assist in the understanding of these factors, and to begin profiling the state of play of fatigue within your organisation. This process informs the Risk Profile of Individual aspect of “Step 1: Determine Risk Profile” in the InterDynamics FRMS methodology.
Insights gained from the receipt of a comprehensive analysis and report can assist in the identification of how big and how bad the issue of fatigue is for your organisation, thereby providing justification for appropriate levels of commitment in time and resources to its treatment.
Importantly, the effectiveness of controls and implemented FRMS elements can be assessed by repeating the process at milestones along the journey and ensure that improvements are being made – at the individual as well as organisational level.
To date, InterDynamics has surveyed more than four thousand workers representing various industries internationally. Contact us if you would like to undertake this simple anonymous survey of your workforce.
In the News
Breast cancer linked to night shift work
Jimmy Downs – “Breast cancer linked to night shift work” – Foodconsumer.org, 16 September, 2012
Women ever working night shifts face a drastically increased risk of breast cancer, compared to those who never work at night, according to a new study in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Is your child suffering from being too busy?
Janet Baressi – ‘Getting enough sleep pays dividends in schools” Edmondun.com, August 3, 2012
Health experts suggest that young children need 10 to 11 hours of sleep a night and recommend nine hours for adolescents. That takes some planning. Research by the National Sleep Foundation shows that children who don’t get enough sleep get lower grades and have difficulty paying attention in class. They also tend to be more overweight and exhibit symptoms of attention deficit disorder. Too little sleep also can lead to feelings of depression.
Olympic-sized sleep debts
Are you concerned about the impact of the amount of sleep you get when the large international events come around on the sporting calendar? The articles below outline some of the acute dangers of prolonged sacrificing of sleep, as well as some tips on how to re-adjust from those late nights of sports-fever.
A Chinese football fan dies at his home after going 11 nights without sleep due to Euro 2012 addiction
“A chinese football fan dies at his home after going 11 nights without sleep due to Euro 2012 addiction” – Foxsports.com.au, June 25, 2012
A Chinese soccer fan died at his home after going 11 nights without sleep as he watched every single Euro 2012 game from Poland and Ukraine.
Olympics: readjusting when it’s all over
“Olympics: Sleep interrupted “ 702 ABC Sydney, August 1, 2012
If you’ve been up all night watching the Olympics, don’t fret. If you’re healthy your sleep patterns should readjust, says one sleep expert.
InterDynamics News
Upcoming free FAID® Webinar series
Over the coming months InterDynamics will be offering webinar (short for Web-based seminar) sessions for those interested in joining FAID users across the world in an interactive session with Robert Farrell – InterDynamics Application Developer to answer questions about the use of FAID, the internationally recognised bio-mathematical model used to estimate work-related fatigue based on hours of work.
Sessions will be free of charge, utilising screen-sharing technology with audio via a teleconference phone number and/or inbuilt VOIP.
Keep an eye out for the upcoming email containing timing and specifics of the event to register for inclusion.
Alliance Partner News
Working Globally
InterDynamics’ alliance partners are based in Australia, Europe, New Zealand and North America. Between us we aim to service the FRMS needs of every organisation that is exposed to fatigue risks around the world. No matter where you are, we would like to hear from you. We want to add value and increased safety to your business.
Integrated Safety Support
Integrated Safety Support invites you to sign up for a free demonstration of our Fatigue Awareness and Management eLearning course which is the most up-to-date online course available.
The eLearning course has been developed specifically for employees, supervisors, rostering personnel, managers and contractors. The aim of the course is to improve awareness about fatigue related risks and provide practical information about how to improve personal fatigue management.
Highly informative and easy to understand, this eLearning course offers participants who have successfully completed the course an option to print a Certificate of Completion.
Click here for a free demonstration.
We are happy to offer volume pricing to organisations wishing to implement the course in their workplace, making this course an affordable and valuable investment in managing fatigue.
For further information please contact Adam at the Melbourne office on 1300 98 57 58 or via email at training@integratedsafety.com.au .
Shiftwork Services
Based in New Zealand, Shiftwork Services provides a specialised advisory/training service to organisations whose employees work shifts or extended hours. Services include specialist workshops, fatigue risk management, wellness programmes, training materials, roster design. Call us to discuss your safety and performance issues.
Please browse our website here.
About the Custodian of the Brand
InterDynamics have been in the planning, scheduling and risk business since 1992. InterDynamics has been privileged to work with leading operational practitioners, scientists and risk engineers to develop and deliver world class fatigue risk programs and products. FaidSafe is offered as a global benchmark for risk-based integrated fatigue management solutions.
FAID® and FaidSafe® are registered brand names of InterDynamics Pty Ltd.
For more information on InterDynamics, visit the InterDynamics website.
FAID® received a WorkCover SA SAfeWork 2001 Award
Copyright © 2012 InterDynamics, All rights reserved.