With COVID-19 upending the way the world functions, truckers have been on the front lines, ensuring essential medical supplies, food, and other items get to where they need to go. Yet, being considered an “essential worker” comes with some drawbacks. One problem truck drivers face as they haul freight from one place to the next is fatigue.
Humans are wired to sleep at night and be awake during the day, so when work schedules interrupt our sleep schedule, the quality of our sleep can suffer, along with our overall health and public safety. It is essential that truckers can get quality sleep before they hit the road. There have been a ton of different regulations and statutes put in place to prevent truck drivers from getting fatigued while they are on the road.
Behind the Data
Did you know that Drowsy Driving Prevention Week just passed? That’s right, from November 1 to November 8, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) put a renewed emphasis on truck driver rest. According to the NSF, an estimated 100,000 accidents happened every year due to fatigued driving.
In 2015, it is estimated that up to 5,000 people died in crashes related to drowsy driving. And since it is difficult to ascertain whether accident fatalities happen because of drowsy driving, the actual number of deaths could be much higher.
The big issue here is that when people fall asleep at the wheel, they know it. If you analyze the data, a lot of adult drivers in the United States admit to getting behind the wheel when they are tired. It is well known that humans are not good judges of their own behavior. And there is more to just the human toll to consider, though it is the most important. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration found that fatigue-related accidents costs $109 billion a year, which is higher than the GDP of some countries.
Truck Drivers in the Spotlight
When it comes to fatigued driving, commercial truck drivers need to be especially vigilant. There is a reason why the federal government came up with the Hours of Service rules, even if it was many, many years ago. Rules like these are designed to decrease the chances of a truck driver getting drowsy behind the wheel, which could potentially be fatal.
Still, HOS isn’t a fix-all. In cases where truck drivers have odd schedules, HOS rules can contribute to fatigue. The government twists itself backwards to try and remedy the situation with various new laws and executive orders, but problems remain.
It is also important to consider that people sleep at different rates. While some people require different amounts of sleep than others. The universally accepted 8-hour rule may not apply to everyone. Every individual has a different rhythm to their sleep, so fleet operations departments need to keep this in mind as they craft policy and procedure.
Consider a truck driver’s duty cycle when planning your programs. While some of your rules may be great, you need to ensure you don’t have unintended consequences from a ham-fisted rule change. If you are not developing programs that take individual chronotypes into account, you may be harming overall safety.
What are the Consequences?
Let’s look at the consequences that come from not getting enough sleep. Obviously, crashes are the worst consequence, but they are also the final. There are many other consequences that can nickel and dime a trucker into an unsafe situation. A lack of sleep impacts every organ in a person’s body. It can even cause you to be in a worse mood.
When people do not get proper sleep, it impairs their decision-making abilities. Sleep-deprived humans can suffer different types of short-term, temporary cognitive decline. From a loss of short-term concentration to their ability to properly focus, tired people are not always able to make quick decisions. This can be especially dangerous for tired truck drivers.
And while these symptoms may seem minor, they can be catastrophic in a pinch. And even worse, a consistent lack of sleep can cause more serious problems like hypertension, heart attacks, and stroke. The last thing anyone needs are ailments like these. The reality of it is that a lack of sleep impacts how we look and eats away at vital systems in our bodies.
The Mechanics of Sleep
It is also important to consider that insufficient sleep is not the only problem. Irregular sleep can also cause major problems for our internal systems. Consider that everything that happens inside our bodies is based on a highly regulated internal clock. This circadian rhythm, as it is called, is part of our innate biological wiring.
Obviously, humans are wired to be awake during the day and sleep at night. The problem is that many truck drivers wind up driving at night instead of sleeping. When waking and sleeping times are different for every day, it negatively impacts everything from digestion to metabolism and cognition. When systems go awry, safety becomes an issue.
And while shift workers are better insulated from the ravages of a lack of sleep, they too can be impacted, even for a short period. The fact is truck drivers who start and stop their day at different times are liable to throw critical bodily functions into disarray.
Many truck drivers who work irregular hours will even have a difficult time telling you when they go to bed, when they get up and star their day, and when they rest again. For many of them, the days blur together in a mishmash of getting up, driving, eating, finding time to rest, and then scrambling for sleep whenever they get it. The question is, what do truck drivers do about it?
Count Your Hours Right
Sure, we are all conditioned to think we all need six to nine hours per night of quality sleep, but that may not actually be true. Some people are actually genetically wired to need less. Others can wake up fully rested and restored in a quick six hours. People who only need six hours usually have a hard time sleeping for a full eight.
But what about people who say they an get by on five hours of sleep per night? In those cases, you have people who really need seven hours, but can get by on five. Over time, these individuals will need to get at least seven hours of sleep per night. Otherwise, you are likely looking at an individual who really needs eight hours, but they simply think they don’t. People need to be careful of this mentality.
For those that do need six hours, try using available hours during a rest break as down time. If you aren’t sleeping, try to get some kind of restorative activity, whether it be though meditation reading or just laying down in a dark environment. Downtime helps, regardless.
Know What You Need
While getting consistent sleep times may be difficult for some truck drivers, that doesn’t mean they should not try. When we go to bed and when we wake are as equally important as the amount of sleep we get. And there are real consequences for having an erratic sleep schedule. If you see negative health patterns developing from erratic sleep, you need to act.
Also consider preparing your body to go to sleep. It is difficult to go from “full on” to “sleeping” in a short period. Try to coax your brain to sleep if you can and avoid screen time right before bed. The key is to dial down the blue light on your devices. Either way, consider a relaxing activity before you go to bed to help put your brain to sleep.
You may also want to add napping to your routine. And while napping is a topic unto itself, it is an effective drowsiness mitigation policy. Napping can be an important strategy in a truck driver wakefulness toolkit. Not everyone falls asleep immediately, and inconsistent sleep schedules benefit from napping.
Have you ever heard of sleep inertia? This is a condition where an individual feels groggy after they have slept for a certain period. This happens when you fall into a deeper sleep than just a nap. When this happens, it is a sign you should be getting more consistent sleep.
In the end, it is critical that you recognize if you have a problem. Your safety and the safety of those around you is at stake. Just consider this, if you developed knee pain, you might ice it up or get a knee brace. You must think of sleep the same way. If you develop poor sleeping habits, you must do what it takes to rectify the problem. Proper sleep is key to safe driving.