It has come to our attention that organisations have been including short breaks (45 mins) when inputting work hours into FAID for analysis. For example, an eleven hour shift, is broken into blocks of 4 / 2 / 1.5 / 1.25 hours of work with 45 minute breaks in between. Thus, the individual has been inputted to have only worked 8.75 hours, and subsequently a lower Peak Fatigue Score is produced, than if they had been inputted as a whole eleven hour shift.
Overall, the inclusion of breaks that are less than 1 hour is not sufficient to include as an opportunity for an individual to obtain recovery sleep.
If there is adequate surroundings provided by the organisation for an individual to rest; e.g. a quiet, dark room, with sleeping facilities, and a long enough break is provided for the purpose of rest, then it may be appropriate to split a shift into work, short-break, work periods.
In the case of no adequate opportunity for sleep provided, then it is recommended, by the Centre for Sleep Research, that at a minimum a rest period of four hours should be included in inputs when entering work periods.
If the organisation is splitting up the shifts into separate tasks, where there is an allocated Low Risk time of less than 1 hour, then the inclusion of a Low Risk shift would be more appropriate for Risk Management than a short break of non-work.