The Benefits of Napping for Safety & How Quickly Can the Brain Wake-Up from Sleep?

Fatigue is a hazard that must be managed within 24-hour safety-critical operations. Napping is the best known countermeasure to fatigue caused by sleep-loss and circadian misalignment. This presentation will: define fatigue; discuss ways to make the most of a nap opportunity; highlight the benefits of napping, including two case studies from workplace settings; outline the challenges in implementing napping in the workplace; and walk through examples to demonstrate that not all naps are equal when it comes to benefits to alertness and performance. The second half of the presentation will focus on sleep inertia, that is, the brief period of impaired alertness and performance experienced after waking from sleep. The factors contributing to and caused by sleep inertia will be discussed, along with countermeasures to reduce the impact of sleep inertia on alertness and performance.