Safety Tips: Dealing with Fatigue

Often times we engaged in extensive mental or physical actives that could lead to fatigue, and if not well managed could influence your emotional and psychological well-being

By definition, fatigue is the absence of energy resulting from protracted, extensive mental or physical activity, or from deficient sleep. Fatigue could also be a progressive deterioration in vigilance and performance that eventually results in sleep.

Fatigue can be stimulated by the type of work we do, long travel by road or international travel across time zones can also induce fatigue.

Falling asleep while you are driving, or performing other vigilance tasks is clearly a serious problem.

But long before fatigue causes you to fall asleep, it can adversely affect your judgment and your physical coordination in ways that can lead to serious incidents.

The initiation of fatigue can be recognized in ourselves and others. Certain signs of fatigue are largely universal and can be divided into two groups; mental and physical.

The mental signs of fatigue include but not exhaustive:
 Negative disposition
 Reduced communication
Blunders and delays
Poor memory
Reduced concentration
Impaired problem solving
Increased risk taking

Some of the physical signs include but not exhaustive:

·         Jiggling and moving around in your seat

·         Rubbing eyes and repeated yawning

·         Staring emptily, with your eyes going in and out of focus

·         Recurrent and lengthy blinking

·         Struggling to keep eyes open

·         Feeling drowsy

These signs help us to identify that we need to take a break, and we need to understand how and why it can become a problem.

Some practical ways of dealing with fatigue includes but not exhaustive:

·         Taking a pre-work rest

·         Avoiding vigilance tasks during times of low alertness

·         Changing your job routine

·         Taking breaks

·         Modifying the work setting

Managing your nutritional intake