Sleep Deprivation Caused by Shift Rotation - Essay Example

White Paper: Sleep Deprivation Caused by Shift Rotation School White Paper: Sleep Deprivation Caused by Shift Rotation Introduction In this white paper, I have investigated sleep deprivation caused by the impact of rotation of the shift on the productivity of technicians. Although technicians may be seen as requiring little skill, they are very stress-prone because of the workload they receive. Shift rotation can be particularly challenging for the technicians because accuracy and attention to detail is required throughout the day for any technician and that alone is exhausting. The aspects explored in this paper would help the audiences recognize the gravity of problem and take necessary measures to avoid such occurrences. The major symptoms of sleep deprivation that shift rotating technician’s exhibit Daytime sleep and night activity causes the intrinsic body clock to be desynchronized from its surrounding environment. This causes deprivation of chronic sleep with rapid eye movement (REM) and stage 2 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) thus causing reduction of sleep and alertness and declined performance at work in a vast majority of cases. Technicians experiencing sleep deprivation assume increased risk of accidents. Disorder in the sleep/wake cycle causes reduction of the physiological differences in the sympathetic activity from day to night. The tendency of having hypertension is higher in the shift workers as compared to the daytime workers. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a problem of health commonly found in the patients having sleep-disordered breathing most of who are shift workers. “One may speculate that chronic inflammatory changes in the pharyngeal soft tissue in OSAS may be aggravated by elevated inflammatory cytokines in subjects with sleep restriction” (Paciorek et al., 2011, p. 276). The major symptoms of sleep deprivation caused by shift rotating including excessive sleepiness linked with sleeping and working at non-standard times and insomnia. In spite of the attempts made to optimize the environment of sleep, the total time of sleep in a day is reduced by several hours. Sleepiness reflects in unintended dozing, a desire to nap, irritability impaired mental acuity, accident proneness, and poor performance. Fatigue is usually a compounding factor since shift work is often linked with added hours of duty. Other symptoms commonly found in technicians with sleep deprivation include but are not limited to irritability, laziness, depression, reduced cognition, and other behavioral issues. One major symptom or consequence of shift rotation is obesity. As the technicians work at night, their glucose and triglyceride levels shoot up, thus causing them to have heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and elevated lipid levels. Causes of the symptoms of sleep deprivation Insomnia and sleepiness during the wake-time are associated with the misalignment between the endogenous circadian sleep and wake propensity and the timing of non-standard schedule of wake-sleep. Factors like social obligations and noise can interrupt attempted sleep at unusual times in addition to the circadian misalignment. An inevitable level of sleep deprivation is related to the immediate transitions in the schedule of sleep. For instance, a night worker who has been awake on the first night duty’s tour for 24 hours is acutely deprived of sleep by the morning. The effects of sleep deprivation depend on the level of severity of OSAS. The acute sleep deprivation of six hours reduces the neuron output of the upper airway (Paciorek et al., 2011, p. 276). The apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) is greater in the technicians with OSAS working shifts during the diurnal sleep following the night shift. Shift workers that have negative nighttime polysomnographies, daytime somnolence, and typical history usually demonstrate high AHI in the diurnal polysomnographies after the working shift of night. The impact of sleep deprivation upon the depressive mood is inspired by the circadian preferences of the technicians. Technicians can be classified into two types depending upon the influence of circadian preferences on their depressive mood; M chronotypes and E chronotypes. Mood depresses with sleep deprivation in the M chronotypes whereas it improves in the E chronotypes. Results of the research carried out by Selvi et al. (2007, p. 243) suggest that sleep deprivation’s differential effects in healthy technicians are linked with their sleep-wake habits and circadian rhythm. Neurotic introversion has an association with intolerance to shift work. The characteristics of morningness or eveningness of the technicians affect their mood states in sleep deprivation. The effects of sleep deprivation on the technician and on the employer For the most part, sleep deprivation of the technicians has negative implications on their performance. Accordingly, its effects on the employer are adverse. Different technicians are affected by shift work differently. Almost 20 per cent of the technicians leave shift work because of their inability to tolerate it, around 10 per cent enjoy it positively, whereas the rest of the technicians tolerate shift work to different extents (Harrington, 1978). Slevi et al. (2007) investigated the mood response to sleep deprivation as shown in the Fig. 1: Fig. 1: “Individual items on mood response to sleep disturbances football players traveling due to different Latitudes and Longitudes” (Selvi et al., 2007, p. 169). Effects of sleep deprivation on technicians also vary with gender. Shift work affects women more than men as women complain of sleepiness and greater exposure to the problems of health as compared to men (Slevi et al., 2007, p. 243). As sleep plays an important role in the regulation of emotional evaluation (Tempesta et al., 2010), sleep deprivation makes the job very challenging for the technicians physically, psychologically, emotionally, as well as socially. They feel tired and undone. They are not mentally as agile and active as they need to be in order to perform efficiently in the tasks. As a result of this, their productivity is reduced. Productivity of the technicians suffering from sleep deprivation is also reduced because of the behavioral issues they have. Deprivation of sleep causes them to be irritable and they pick up fights with others unnecessarily. The resulting interpersonal conflicts reduce the productivity of the whole team. Employers are not satisfied with the performance and productivity of the technicians. All of these effects distort the relation between a technician and an employer. Many employers indulge in issuing the technicians red cars, warning letters ultimately leading to the termination of the technicians. Some positive ways for the employer to control sleep deprivation on technicians Some positive ways in which the employer can control the sleep deprivation of the technicians is by increasing their support and feedback for them. Employers should show the technicians through their behavior that they really care about how hard they are trying to make things work, and should improve communication with the technicians. In addition to the efforts of the employer, there is much that technicians themselves can also do to control their sleep deprivation. Suggestions for this include but are not limited to wearing sunglasses as they travel back home; setting some time to take sleep in a dark and cool room with the cellphone turned silent; taking nap before commencing a night shift, establishing an anchor time of four hours to sleep, and sleeping for that time daily. A regular exercise program can be established to fight fatigue. In addition to that, technicians may take a short nap in the breaks with due approval of the employer. Technicians should not consume caffeine in at least the six hours prior to the time set for sleep. Also, the day’s biggest meal should be consumed after sleeping rather than before it. When they are overcome with fatigue at work, they should take a walk and drink more water. Adaptation is possible if technicians are committed to taking good care of themselves and if the employer provide them with the approval and resources to achieve that. Since the characteristics of morningness or eveningness of the shift workers affect their states of mood significantly, employers can adjust the work schedule with these characteristics of the technicians to improve the alterations of their mood. The importance of technicians for the company and the society Technicians are extremely important both for the company and the society as a whole. In any industry ranging from construction to medical, technicians are required to keep the equipment and utensils functional and fully operational. They help improve the efficiency of the system and avoid time delays. This is why employers commonly rotate their shifts to be able to execute work continuously. By contributing to the development of projects and making systems operational, technicians improve the profitability of the business, thus instantly benefiting the employer and eventually the whole society. Reflection on interview I interviewed two technicians; Jeff Jackson who is the Impact Test Technician, and Ross Marshal who is the Fatigue Test Technician. Both technicians commonly expressed that sleep deprivation causes them to be lethargic and fatigued. They indulge in conflicts with their coworkers unintentionally because of the increased irritability caused by sleep deprivation. They told that they made a request to their employer to establish a particular shift for them either day’s or night’s but their request has not been entertained yet. Nevertheless, the technicians said that as time has gone by, they are not as seriously affected by sleep deprivation as they used to be in the beginning. References: Harrington, J. M. (1978). Shiftwork and Health: A Critical Review of the Literature. The Stationery Office, London, 1–28. Paciorek, M., Korczyński, P., Bielicki, P., Byśkiniewicz, K., Zieliński, J., and Chazan, R. (2011). Obstructive sleep apnea in shift workers. Sleep Medicine. 12(3), 274-277. Selvi, Y., Gulec, M., Agargun, M. Y., and Besiroglu, L. (2007). Mood changes after sleep deprivation in morningness–eveningness chronotypes in healthy individuals. Journal of Sleep Research, 16(3), 241-244. Tempesta, D., Couyoumdjian, A., Curcio, G., Moroni, F., Marzano, C., De Gennaro, L., and Ferrara, M. (2010). Lack of sleep affects the evaluation of emotional stimuli. Brain Research Bulletin. 82(1/2), 104-108. Read More