I’ve heard it said that the best shift schedule is the one you are not working. That’s a common perception, possibly because shift work is

Fatigue can be defined as a complex state characterized by a lack of alertness and reduced mental and physical performance, often accompanied by drowsiness.  Each

How does the food you eat affect your ability to be “fit for duty”?  Primarily it is important to provide energy to your body that

Good morning! Did you wake singing, “Zippadee-doo-dah, zippadee-a; my, oh my, what a wonderful day”? A good night’s sleep can leave you feeling livelier, with

Water is the primary foundational component of health. It’s known to be the most important nutrient we take in because it’s involved in every function

Bill Engvall made the phrase, “Here’s your sign” famous when he made us laugh about people not getting the picture, not understanding the obvious. The

For some of our readers, the abuse of drugs may be a very sensitive topic because you or someone you care about has become physically

The term ‘circadian’ comes from the Latin circa meaning around, and diem meaning day. Our bodies go through a fairly predictable series of processes in

Stonewall Jackson made the song “B.J. the D.J.” famous in 1963. Have you heard it? It tells a story about a friend of the singer

Have you been told you snore loudly and often? Do you ever stop breathing or have difficulty catching your breath during sleep? Do you find

Oh, just look at them . . . isn’t this a heart-warming scene? You can see the connection between them. Do you remember the feelings

Are you one to set goals for yourself at the start of a new year? Even if you haven’t had great success completing the steps

Family Gathering In The Lost Country by William Gay, there is a passage about a hospital that is appropriate for those who work shift work

Sleepy Driving Drowsy Driving Prevention Week is scheduled in November.  The National Safety Foundation sponsors it and the organization provides information at https://sleepfoundation.org/drowsy-driving.  How many

Fatigue Training and Education Carlette is a pipeline controller in a hazardous liquids pipeline control center.  We were providing control room team training for the

Off Duty But Not Resting What shiftworkers do when off duty is a contentious subject.  Scarlet Knight and I were leading fatigue risk management training

Investigating Fatigue Factors In planning this article, I recalled an operational near miss with my fatigue as the cause. In the 1980s I worked eight

Types of Fatigue For work and pleasure, I traveled every week between the first week of February and the last week of May.  After I

How Exercise Affects Sleep When I was a teenager, my best friend’s family had a lake house with a dock and a boat. She and

Lark or Owl? Are you a lark or an owl?  A person who is characterized as a lark or an early bird is one who

Too Tired to Work Safely Do you show up to work in your pajamas? I was in a control room a few years ago at

Fatigue Management Policies One of the subjects that are supposed to be covered in fatigue management training for controllers and their supervisors is a company’s

Develop Good Nutrition Habits, Part 2 You usually do what you want to, don’t you? What if you wanted to build better habits? If you

Develop Good Nutrition Habits I am probably the worst Pipeline Performance Group LLC consultant to write an article about developing good nutrition habits.  One definition

Fatigue Modeling Fatigue risk management would be simpler if we could predict the times when one would become fatigued before one becomes fatigued.  One of

A Fresh Start A brand new year begins, and the big baby in the drawing indicates “this is the year for Best Fatigue Management ever.” 

Pipeline Performance Group, LLC has reached a significant milestone by completing over 200 workload assessments in control rooms since 2011. While the specific purpose of

Take Time to Relax Do you like this month’s picture of the pipeliner taking a bubble bath? Is that one of your relaxation methods? An

Recognizing Fatigue We know intellectually that we need to sleep about eight hours after we have been awake for about 16 hours. My granddaughter does

Take Time for Fitness Many control rooms have provided either exercise equipment or even added an exercise room for their controllers and other personnel. A

Off Duty Chores I met a gas plant operator a few years ago.  The plant was in a remote area, so the operators had long

Circadian Rhythms George Gershwin wrote the song “I’ve Got Rhythm” in 1930.  In Gershwin’s song he is chipper all the day, happy with his life,

Do Not Disturb I have been watching “Victorian Slum House” on PBS. A mother and father sleep in one bed. In the same room, a

The Self Care Wheel A well-rounded life is important for fatigue management. Getting a proper amount of sleep, every day, is the primary way to

Morning Jolt How do you prefer to get your caffeine?  I can use caffeinated shampoo, shave cream, and after shave first thing in the morning

Sleep Versus Fatigue “Katherine Johnson arrived at the office early, went home in the late afternoon to check on her daughters, and then came back

Sleeping less than five hours a day could elevate your risk of being involved in a car accident. In our classroom fatigue training sessions, many

How is your liver functioning? Have the holidays disrupted your sleep times, food and drink intake, and exercise routines? I read about a study in

Did you purchase one of the 78 million fitness trackers sold in the USA in 2015? I have been using a BASIS fitness and sleep

Fatigue modeling is one of the subjects PHMSA mentions that fatigue training should cover. Wouldn’t it be great to know exactly what time you are

A microsleep is a short episode of sleep that occurs when a person is trying to stay awake, but cannot do so any longer. Have

I remember when the proposed Control Room Management regulations were issued in 2008 and the whining by control room managers about this statement: (1) Establish

“It is estimated that 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from a disorder of sleep and wakefulness, hindering daily functioning and adversely affecting health and

It might be counter intuitive to advise avoiding the light, since most studies advise getting a good dose of sunlight to wake us up in

Several of my colleagues pay a great deal of attention to what they eat and drink, the amounts they eat and drink, and when they

According to sleep science, humans cycle through several stages of sleep during a sleep period. Depending on the scientific source, they may divide the sleep

Judy Riggs, an organizational development expert, taught me how to be a consultant. When I complained about some person or group who did not want

Have you read the book or seen the movie “The Big Short?” It is about a few money managers who “shorted” or bet against the

The first American Heart Month was February 1964. One of my uncles, a shift worker in a clay mine, died of a heart attack when

People who are successful at shift work develop strategies to enable them to get an adequate amount of sleep. One strategy is to create an