May, the month we honor and celebrate mothers.  A group of women, who carry, labor and endure great physical, mental, and emotional feats for no other reason than love.  From kissing baby toes to empathizing with grown children, our mothers are a constant reminder of endurance.  Women who have the stamina to carry on even when the days are long, the tasks are daunting, and sleep is non-existent.   

From late evening feeds to early morning cartoons, a mother is awake. When the baby cries, the mother is rocking, singing, and pleading for sleep.  When the toddler is awake before the early bird even thinks about getting a morning worm, the mother is reading books, building blocks, and anxious for naptime.  When the child is awake with fever and illness, the mother is monitoring, comforting, and begging for sleep.  When the teenager is out late, the mother is waiting, worrying, and in need of rest.  When the grown child leaves the nest, the mother is still on duty, watching as a piece of her heart enters a world of unknowns.  She may no longer rock her child to sleep, read bedtime stories, and give kisses goodnight, but she is awake remembering, praying, and loving her child from afar. 

“Even when a mother’s soul is tired, she finds strength for her family.”

A group of women who withstand a lifetime sentence of sleep deprivation.  We honor their sacrifices and thank them. 

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The post A Thank You to All Our Mothers appeared first on Academy Sleep Wellness.

And it’s not only sleep-deprived mothers of newborns who are dragging. Whether you have a preschooler demanding encores of You Are My Sunshine at 4 a.m. or a high schooler thumping up the stairs an hour after curfew, sleep doesn’t come easy to mothers — regardless of how old their kids are.

Experts say that sleep-deprived mothers shouldn’t be so blasé about the problem.

“Mothers really underestimate the importance of getting enough sleep,” says Jodi A. Mindell, PhD, a professor of psychology at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia “Sleep deprivation has so many serious consequences for their health and their families.”

Of course, you’d like to sleep better than you do. But a lot of the typical sleep advice is about improving your sleeping environment and calming yourself before bed. That’s all well and good. It’s just that adjusting the feng shui of your bedroom or buying a Soothing Ocean Tide Sound Machine won’t help much when you’re up six times a night replacing the pacifier in a squalling infant’s mouth.

You know what’s disrupting your sleep: being a mother. But is there anything you can do about it?

Mothers and Sleep Loss: It’s Not Just for Babies

“There’s very little data about how parents sleep, but obviously there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that they don’t sleep enough,” says Thomas Roth, PhD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. While fathers probably don’t sleep so well either, mothers are perhaps likely to suffer more.

The negative impact of being a mom on your quality of sleep starts before your baby is born (sleeping with the compressed bladder and beach ball belly of pregnancy isn’t easy) and can last well beyond kindergarten. Studies indicate that almost 14% of grade school kids are still getting their parents up in the night, Mindell says.

Children waking up at night aren’t the only reason for all of those sleep-deprived mothers shuffling through life. Part of the problem is that mothers put their kids to bed and then stay up much later than they should.

It’s understandable, Mindell says. “A lot of moms see the night as their own quiet time to relax or as a chance to get things done that they couldn’t during the day.” . So instead of going to bed earlier to compensate for the sleep they’re losing in the night, mothers might stay up later — further eroding the time they sleep.

Sleep-Deprived Mothers: The Health Effects

Of course, many sleep-deprived mothers just pooh-pooh the recommendations about getting more rest. Sure, it would be swell if they could sleep eight hours a night, but it just seems absurdly unrealistic.

It doesn’t help that as a culture, we tend to look down on sleep. Getting too much — or even just enough — implies softness. Some sleep-deprived mothers take pride in doing too much and sleeping too little, trading war stories of sleepless nights with other moms at the park.

But sleep experts are trying to get people to change their attitude about sleep. “We really need to look at sleep as something that’s just as important to good health as diet and exercise,” Ronald Kramer, MD, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a specialist at the Colorado Sleep Disorders Center in Englewood, Colo.

Roth agrees. “We have good data linking insufficient sleep with all sorts of problems,” Roth tells WebMD. “It’s connected to poor performance at work, obesity, diabetes, excessive risk-taking behavior, and heart disease.” Honestly, if you pick a disease or health problem at random from a medical text, it’s probably worsened by or linked to sleep loss.

The Impact of Sleep Loss on Mothers

If looking after your own health isn’t enough to get you to change your habits, remember that you’re not the only one affected. If you’re constantly tired, your whole family will feel it.

“If you’re getting enough sleep, it will help you be a more involved mother,” says Mindell. “It’s certainly a lot easier to play the 17th round of Ring Around the Rosie with your 2-year-old when you’re not exhausted.”

There are real risks to chronic exhaustion, too — risks that many sleep-deprived mothers just don’t take seriously.

“Not getting enough sleep really affects your ability to function,” says Mindell. “You’re more likely to make mistakes when you’re tired. You’re more likely to slip and fall, or cut yourself when chopping vegetables, or forget to fasten the straps of your baby’s high chair.”

Some of the scariest risks come when a sleep-deprived mother gets in the car. Studies have compared the risks of driving drowsy with the risks of driving drunk — it’s estimated to cause 100,000 auto accidents a year. And yet mothers who would never, ever drive their children after having a few glasses of wine drive exhausted every day.

“I worry a lot about all the moms out there who are driving drowsy,” says Mindell. “They’re struggling to stay awake with a 1-year-old sitting in the backseat. That can have terrible consequences.”

Tips for Sleep-Deprived Mothers

What can a sleep-deprived mother do? Here’s some advice.

• Be prepared. When you’ve got small kids, getting woken up in the middle of the night can be more the rule than the exception. Don’t routinely go to bed at midnight, gambling on your two-year-old sleeping soundly. You’re going to lose. In the long-run, you’ll just keep piling on to your sleep debt.”Moms should really expect that they will be woken up every night and plan accordingly,” says Mindell. “They need to get to bed early enough to accommodate it.” If you’re not woken up on a given night, you got some bonus sleep. And if you were, at least you were prepare

• Take naps. Although sleep experts advise against naps for most people with insomnia, they say sleep-deprived mothers should ignore that advice.
• “It definitely doesn’t apply to parents who were woken up six times in the night by their kids and today are falling asleep in their soup,” says Roth. “For people like that, ‘Don’t take a nap’ is stupid advice. If your kids are still young enough to nap themselves, follow the advice you got on the maternity ward: Nap when your baby naps.

• Catch up on sleep during the weekend. Many sleep-deprived mothers — stuck between their responsibilities as worker, parent, and home-runner — feel like there’s simply no way to get enough sleep during the week. If so, you have to use the weekends to atone, Roth says/ He recommends that you swap time with their spouse on weekends so that you can both sleep in one day. Or try to make a standing appointment with a relative or sitter to get a couple of hours of nap time during the weekend.

• Help your child sleep more soundly. Obviously, there’s nothing abnormal about a newborn who wakes you up six times a night. It takes at least three to six months before babies adopt a sleep schedule that’s even remotely civilized, says Kramer. But if your older children have a consistent problem sleeping through the night, you might want to talk to your pediatrician. Occasionally, children can develop sleep disorders themselves. More often, making little changes — like adopting a more consistent bedtime or putting up room-darkening shades — can make a big difference. “If you can solve your child’s sleep problem, you could also be solving your own.”

• Relax before bed. You might have elaborate bedtime rituals for your kids: a bath, story time, songs, hugs, a sip of water, one more song, a pat on the back, one more sip of water, and one last song. But you might have nothing for yourself, the sleep-deprived mother. That’s a mistake, says Mindell. “Bedtime rituals are important for everybody, not just toddlers,” says Mindell. So don’t try to go straight from washing dishes or checking email to bed. Instead, dim the lights and read for a while. Building in a little time to unwind before getting into bed will help you sleep more soundly

Take Sleep Seriously

Of course, even if you are a sleep-deprived mother, it’s hard to follow any of this advice in the moment. At 11:15 p.m. on a Tuesday, staying up for that last load of laundry to finish can seem much more important than the abstract benefits of an extra 45 minutes of sleep.

And there’s the more general problem: many sleep-deprived mothers just don’t feel like they have the eight hours to spare each day. If you don’t stay up late washing the dishes and packing the lunches and sorting through the stacks of school artwork, how will it ever get done?

Think hard about what your sleep loss is costing you. Sure, you could spend more hours awake by shaving time off your sleep. But if you’re a chronically sleep-deprived mother, just how enjoyable and productive will your time awake be? What’s the benefit of reducing your sleep just so you can drift through the next day feeling like a zombie?

“What mothers need to remember is that if they want to be productive for those 16 hours a day, they need to sleep the other eight,” says Kramer. “That’s just how it is.”

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Spring is FINALLY here! After months of enduring cold temperatures, brutal winds and wintry precipitations, so many of us are eager to open the windows and smell that fresh spring air…unless you are one of the millions of individuals who suffer from seasonal allergies. Too many of us are familiar with the dreaded symptoms – coughing, sneezing, itchy eyes, a runny nose and even a scratchy throat. In severe cases allergies can induce rashes, hives, troubled breathing and asthma attacks.

Allergic rhinitis, commonly referred to as “Hay Fever”, attacks allergy sufferers through a wide arsenal of spring time weapons – mold, dust mites, tree and grass pollen. Many of us arm ourselves with boxes of tissues and antihistamines just so we can endure the days and sleep through the nights. According to the National Sleep Foundation, “the more severe your symptoms, the lower the quality of your shuteye is likely to be” (“Can’t Sleep? These Allergens,” n.d.). Poor sleep magnifies overall physical and emotional symptoms of drowsiness and irritability in addition to weakening the body’s ability to maintain a strong immune system.

In an effort to help those plagued with seasonal allergies survive this blossoming season, here are some helpful tips:

• Wash out your nasal passages
• Invest in an antihistamine that will help ease your allergy symptoms without disrupting your sleep
• Keep your house and car windows shut. On warmer days turn on your A.C. and ceiling fans (be sure to check for any dust)
• Monitor the pollen count and avoid being outside if reports indicate high pollen levels wherever you are going.
• Shower before bed

Until spring is no longer in the air, stay strong allergy sufferers. Summer is near!

Resources

Hall, Alena. (2017, June 23). 7 ways spring can affect your sleep quality. The Huntington Post. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/19/health/spring-sleep/index.html

10 ways to sleep better during allergy season. (n.d.). Reader’s Digest. Best health. Retrieved from https://www.besthealthmag.ca/best-you/allergies/10-ways-to-sleep-better-during-allergy-season/

Allergy Facts and Figures. (n.d.). Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Retrieved from https://www.aafa.org/allergy-facts/

Can’t Sleep? These Allergens Might Be the Reason Why. (n.d.). National Sleep Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/cant-sleep-these-allergens-might-be-reason- why

The post Spring Has Sprung But Is Your Sleep Falling Flat? first appeared on Academy Sleep Wellness.

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So what is the exercise/sleep connection? Studies show that physical activity improves sleep quality and increases sleep duration because it reduces stress and tires you out. Also early morning and afternoon exercise may help reset the sleep wake cycle by raising body temperature a slight amount and then allowing it to drop and trigger sleepiness a few hours later. Exercising outdoors allows your body to absorb natural sunlight as well.

So how much exercise do you need to get for a better night’s sleep? Charlene Gamaldo, M.D., medical director of John Hopkins Center for Sleep suggests that people who engage in at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise might see a difference in sleep quality. However, she suggests that a person needs to pick an exercise they like to help them stick with it.

So if you’re looking to sleep better and improve your overall health consider exercising to improve your sleep.

Resources

“5 Facts About Sleep and Exercise.” National Sleep Foundation. 31 Jan. 2019 <https://www.sleepfoundation.org/5-facts-about-sleep-and-exercise>.

“How Exercise Affects Sleep.” Sleep.Org. Sleep.Org. 31 Jan. 2019 <https://www.sleep.org/articles/exercise-affects-sleep/>.

“Sleep Better.” Is There Really Any Benefit to Multivitamins? 31 Jan. 2019 <https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy-sleep/sleep-better/exercising-for-better-sleep>.

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One study looked at how sleeping with your pets can affect people suffering from chronic pain. 80 percent of those suffering from chronic pain reported a positive benefit when sleeping with their dogs. Research has also showed that pets are a comfort to those who sleep alone. The study conducted in 2015 looked at 150 patients with significant sleep disorders. Out of those 150 patients, 25 percent allowed their pets to sleep in the bedroom and about half perceived their pets as unobtrusive or beneficial for their sleep. The participants reported that their pets provided them with security, companionship, and relaxation that aided in their sleep. Pets may also help you get out of bed easier. Pets might motivate you to keep a regular schedule and encourage you to exercise, which contributes to restorative sleep. They can also help play a transitional role at bedtime by triggering a sense of routine, order, and security which contributes to good sleep hygiene.

While there are many pros there also is some cons. Sleep disturbances can occur when you co-sleep with your pets due to the animal’s movements, noises and taking up space. Some pets also snore. At the moment I have a young kitten that sleeps in bed with me. She has some breathing problems and she can give some people a run for their money in a snoring contest. Sleeping with a pet may also delay your sleep while you or your pet try to find a comfortable position to sleep in. You can also get sick if you sleep with your pets. Cat-scratch fever is an actual disease that is a bacterial infection that comes from flea-exposed felines. If an infected cat bites or scratches you the disease can be transmitted. In some documented cases cat-scratch fever has been tied to people sleeping with or being licked by an infected pet.

         Ultimately it is up to you if you want to sleep with your animals. But before you do consider the pros and cons.

Sources

Breus, Michael. “Does Sleeping With My Dog Or Other Pets Help Or Hurt My Sleep?” Your Guide to Better Sleep. 20 Oct. 2018. TheSleepDoctor. 17 Jan. 2019 <https://www.thesleepdoctor.com/2018/10/20/does-sleeping-with-my-dog-or-other-pets-help-or-hurt-my-sleep/>.

Esposito, Lisa. “Is it Healthy to Sleep With Your Pets?” U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report. 17 Jan. 2019 <https://health.usnews.com/wellness/slideshows/is-it-healthy-to-sleep-with-your-pets>.

“Is It Healthy to Sleep with Pets?” Sleep.Org. Sleep.Org. 17 Jan. 2019 <https://www.sleep.org/articles/sleeping-with-pets/>.

Moss, Laura. “Pets in the bedroom may help you sleep better.” MNN – Mother Nature Network. 26 Oct. 2018. Mother Nature Network. 17 Jan. 2019 <https://www.mnn.com/family/pets/stories/pets-bedroom-may-help-you-sleep-better>.

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1. Spruce up your sleep hygiene habits: Sleep hygiene refers to the everyday behaviors that you engage in that help your body know that it is time to sleep. This can include becoming more consistent with the times you go to bed and wake up. Making sure you get enough sunlight during the day, limiting light exposure at night, and also limiting your caffeine and alcohol consumption closer to bedtime.
2. Be more consistent with your sleep schedule: As I said above, a consistent sleep schedule is an important part of sleep hygiene. Keeping a consistent sleep schedule means waking up and going to bed at the same time every day, including the weekends. Make sure you also allot time for seven or more hours of sleep daily.
3. Give yourself a screen time curfew: Try to stop using your phone, watching TV or using the computer an hour before bedtime. Research shows that light from your devices can disrupt your sleep. Using your electronic devices can mess with your circadian rhythm (your body’s internal clock), which suppresses the sleep inducing hormone melatonin from being released making it more difficult for you to fall asleep. 
4.  Have a clean sleeping routine: Make your sleep your number one priority. Take care of yourself before bed. Take a relaxing bath or shower, put on fresh pajamas, go to bed at the same time, unplug your devices and maybe read a relaxing book. Doing this can help relax your nervous system and lets your brain and body know that it is time for bed.
5. Make your bedroom a sleep sanctuary: Your bedroom should be the comfiest place for you to sleep. Making sure your bedroom is comfy will help your body associate it with sleep. Adjust the amount of light that comes into the room, consider using blackout curtains or a sleep mask to block out any light coming from the street. Adjust the color scheme, cool-tones colors could help improve your sleep. If putting a fresh coat of paint on your walls isn’t an option, try switching up the color of your bedding.  Even make sure your furniture is arranged in a way that feels relaxing for you. If your bedroom is too loud or there is noise coming from outside, try using some ear plugs.
6. Try meditation: Meditating before bed can help relax your mind and body. Meditating allows for your pulse too slow, your blood pressure to drop and decrease your stress hormones.
7. Keep a sleep diary: Keeping track of how you sleep each night can help you pinpoint what is causing you to have trouble sleeping. Record what time you go to bed each night and what time you wake up each morning. Write down what you eat, drink and do during the day. Try this for 30 days and soon you will have a clearer picture of your sleep habits and what might be disrupting them.

Whether you have trouble sleeping at night or you think you get some pretty good sleep, these tips can always help you to improve. Start 2019 right by getting your best sleep yet.

Resources

Guerra, Julia. “Stick Too These 8 New Year’s Resolutions If You Want To Sleep Like A Baby In 2019.” Elite Daily, Elite Daily, 17 Dec. 2018, www.elitedaily.com/p/8-new-years-resolutions-for-better-sleep-in-2019-because-quality-rest-is-underrated-15524851.

Neal, Brandi. “6 Small Hacks Too Help You Get Better Sleep In 2019.” Bustle, Bustle, 30 Dec. 2018, www.bustle.com/p/if-sleeping-better-is-your-new-years-goal-setting-these-6-micro-goals-might-help-15570705.

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            But why do some people have these recurring dreams and what do they mean? Most recurring dreams are assumed to reveal the presence of unresolved conflict or stress in the dreamer’s life. Recurrent dreams are often accompanied by negative dream content, that is associated with lower psychological well-being. However, research suggests that negative recurrent dreams are not necessarily maladaptive. Students who had dreams of failing a test the night before the exam actually got a higher grades.

            To stop these recurring dreams you have to figure out what the nightmare means. You first need to find the root of your problem. Think about what is stressing you out or upsetting you in your life at the moment. You may even have to dig deep into your past to figure out if there are traumas that you have yet to deal with head on. Next you need to record every detail of your recurring dream. This will help you break down what needs to addressed. After you complete that task you then need to start connecting the dots and soon you will realize that problems you have in your life will be hinted at in your dreams. After you have figure out the problem you must work to overcome it. Whether it be relationship issues, work stress or something else, once you overcome this problem your recurring dream should go away.

References

Carr, Michelle. “What’s Behind Your RecurringDreams.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dream-factory/201411/whats-behind-your-recurring-dreams.

Obringer, Lee Ann. “How Dreams Work.” HowStuffWorksScience, HowStuffWorks, 8 Mar. 2018,science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/dream8.htm. 

 “Recurring and Repetitive Dreams.” Dream Dictionary,www.dreamdictionary.org/dreaming/recurring-dreams/

The post Why You Have Recurring Dreams, and What They Mean. first appeared on Academy Sleep Wellness.

The post Why You Have Recurring Dreams, and What They Mean. appeared first on Academy Sleep Wellness.

Lower Protein intake was associated with short and long sleep times. Less difficulty falling asleep, maintaining sleep and less non-restorative sleep was linked with a higher intake of protein.

Also in this study, carb consumption was also associated with less difficulty maintaining sleep. However, this benefit occurred when complex carbs were consumed such as fiber. Researchers noticed a harmful effect linked with sugar intake, which resulted in more daytime fatigue. However, increased fiber resulted in less difficulty maintaining sleep and less daytime sleepiness. A high-glycemic diet has been linked to depression symptoms, fatigue and total mood disturbances due to poor sleep.

In a Women’s Health Initiative study, increased fat intake was not associated with adverse sleep symptoms but a low fat diet was linked with non-restorative sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness. High fat ketogenic diets have been used to treat epilepsy for centuries and was also used as a treatment for diabetes before the discovery of insulin. The “Keto” diet is now one of the most popular internet searched diets and has been used for weight loss, cancer, and narcolepsy. It has been associated with improved sleep quality and improving the symptoms of narcolepsy.

Micronutrients are also looked at when studying the impact of nutrients on sleep. Most people think of vitamins when it comes to micronutrients but metabolites, amino acids, and fatty acids are also included in this group. They ensure normal metabolism and physical well-being. They also can influence sleep quality and circadian factors.
Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) has been shown to reduce daytime sleepiness and improve sleep patterns while also increasing activity. Vitamin B9 (Folate) is linked to improving mood and sleep while vitamin B12 (Cobalamin) influences circadian rhythms. Less quantities of Vitamin B have been linked to insomnia. So where can you get Vitamin B? Sources include meat such as red meat, poultry and fish. Eggs and dairy products like milk and cheese. Legumes like beans and lentils. Seeds, nuts, dark leafy greens and whole grains are also great sources of vitamin B.

Amino acids such as asparagine, have had an effect on fatigue. Mental and physical fatigue coincides with low levels of glutamine, serine and carnitine. Meats, poultry, eggs and fish are common sources for these amino acids and metabolites.

Some minerals have also been linked to improving sleep. Magnesium and zinc are two minerals that have coincided with improving sleep quality. Magnesium has been useful in treating restless leg syndrome. Other studies have shown that nightly melatonin, magnesium and zinc has improved sleep quality in primary insomnia patients. magnesium and zinc have been found in dark leafy greens, nuts and seeds, legumes, whole grains and in dark chocolate. Zinc can also be found in meats and shellfish.

Oleic acid is a fatty acid that is the precursor to oleamide, which regulates our drive for sleep. Insomnia patients tend to have oleic acid deficiency. Oleic acid is a major constituent of plant oils like olive oil and almond oil. Fish consumption, which is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids has been linked with improving sleep.

With this information one isolated vitamin, mineral or macronutrient does not play a definitive role in the optimization of sleep. They all work together which is why food diversity is so important. In general low-glycemic eating, minimally processed foods, moderate protein, whole grains and healthy fats are better for sleep.

Resources

Colon, Jose. “How Does Nutrition Impact Sleep Disorders?” Sleep Review, 27 Oct. 2018, www.sleepreviewmag.com/2018/10/nutrition-impact-sleep-disorders/.

The post How Does Nutrition Impact Sleep? first appeared on Academy Sleep Wellness.

The post How Does Nutrition Impact Sleep? appeared first on Academy Sleep Wellness.

Resources

What Is Alzheimer’s?” Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia, www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers.

The post Sleep Deprivation and its Correlation with Alzheimer’s first appeared on Academy Sleep Wellness.

The post Sleep Deprivation and its Correlation with Alzheimer’s appeared first on Academy Sleep Wellness.

In addition to this, poor sleep slows physical and cognitive reaction times and accuracy which increases the risk of injury while on the job. An employee’s productivity also decreases with fatigue which could cost employers an estimated $1,967 per employee per year. Poor sleep also creates a decrease in communication. A study showed that sleep deprived people drop the intensity of their voices, pause for long periods of times without reason, enunciate poorly or mumble instructions. There is an increased risk of becoming distracted. Many sleep-deprived individuals have trouble maintaining focus on important things, keeping track of events. Some research even suggests that there is a symbiotic relationship between sleep deprivation and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) because many of the symptoms overlap between the two.

In a recent blog we talked about drowsy driving and again this is a safety hazard in the work place as well as on the road. The trucking industry is aware of the driving impairments that come with sleep deprivation because of federal regulations. However, plant managers or warehouse managers can be unaware of the ways sleep deprived workers could be operating machinery such as forklifts and dump trucks dangerously. Errors may also increase if an employee is overworked or sleep deprived. These errors could lead to harm of an employee or not performing a specific task that is asked of the employee. A sleep deprived employee may also have poor mood appropriate behavior. Many sleep deprived individuals are withdrawn and quiet. However, it only takes one inappropriate mood behavior outburst to ruin a positive work environment which will cause a nightmare for HR.

So who is at risk of being sleep deprived? Due to an employees’ work and home life getting enough sleep can be hard for anyone no matter what job they have. However, people who work in industries that require shift work or long hours can have a higher risk of sleep deprivation and sleep related disorders. If companies address sleep as part of a workplace health program safety can increase while also helping employees be healthier.

There are four strategies companies can implement to combat sleep deprivation in the work place.

Strategy 1: Education, Training, and Assessment.
1. Education: Information about sleep can be out in newsletters or in common areas for employees to view. An employer can provide recommendations from health agencies on how much sleep is needed to be healthy etc.
2. Training: Hold training sessions for managers and employees to recognize the signs and symptoms of fatigue and how to reduce fatigue related incidents.
3. Assessment: Companies can provide workers access to tools that evaluate their sleep.

Strategy 2: Incorporate Dedicated Breaks and Napping Rooms.
1. Dedicate physical spaces with beds or comfortable chairs where employees can rest.
2. Schedules that allow for breaks.

Strategy 3: Recognize Tiredness and Pull Over Safely.
1. Alertness is critical for driving safely. Teach employees how to recognize the signs of fatigue, encourage them to pull over safely and allow them to take naps. Managers can work with drivers to plan their routes and make sure to schedule times for sleep in places that are safe.

Strategy 4: Modify the Workplace to Increase Alertness.
1. Lighting. Adjust the brightness and wavelength to maximize alertness according to the time of the shift. (i.e. Increase lighting during night shifts to increase alertness and reduce fatigue).
2. Temperature. Maintaining a constant temperature in the work place can promote wakefulness. If the temperature increases the more workers begin to feel drowsier.
3. Noise. Continuous sound acts as a stimulant for employees and is effective when music is varied.

Most importantly make sleep a priority for your employees by implementing these strategies and having workplace health programs to inform and educate not only your employees but also you and your other managers.

Resources

Sleep: An Important Health and Safety Concern at Work.” Www.cdc.gov, www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/initiatives/resource-center/pdf/WHRC-Brief-Sleep-508.pdf.

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