The Cost of Fatigue

It's been a while since I last updated, mostly since I've been putting in a few extra hours at work and have been too tired when I come home.  I've never been a morning person, but now I've been getting up around 6 am to get to work.  And sadly, going to work early never means getting out of work early---I usually end up staying until well after 5 pm.  By the time I get home, I'm exhausted.  Partly it's because there's so much work to do (our group is very lean and stretched out), but I wonder if partly it's because I'm not as efficient as I can be.  As with most of this generation, I can feel my attention span dropping and have trouble focusing.  It would be easy to blame all of the distractions of modern life, but part of it is I think due to simple fatigue.  I'm just not getting enough sleep.

And it's not just me.  According to a study in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 38% of surveyed workers reported "low levels of energy, poor sleep, or a feeling of fatigue" during the past two weeks.  It's estimated that fatigue costs an average of 5.6 hours a week in lost productivity.  Interestingly enough, this is one disadvantage is demographically opposite of the standard---fatigue hits white workers harder than black workers.

The National Academies estimate that fatigue costs businesses around $150 billion annually, with another $48 billion lost in vehicle accidents.  I suspect those numbers are actually a little conservative since fatigue is such an undefinable factor.  How do you quantify fatigue?  How do you measure lower efficiency and performance?  It's like a vicious cycle---you're tired at work, so you don't get as much done and you feel more stressed, which makes it harder to get a good night's sleep, rinse and repeat.  On top of that, each night adds to your overall sleep debt so that by the weekend you can hardly move.  And sadly, my body is so trained at waking up early on the weekdays that I have a hard time sleeping in on the weekends.

I think that I'm doing pretty well at work, but I've always wondered how much more productive I could be if I could only get an extra couple of hours of sleep.  Instead of starting the day before 8 am, what if I didn't show up until 10 am?  I'd lose a couple of hours, but I'd feel a lot more refreshed and recharged at the start of the day (which is why I think this is better than having a nap time in the afternoon).  I bet I could recoup those two hours with more energy and efficiency and get even more things done.  Which is better, having a good solid 30 hour work week or a tired, cloudy 40 hour work week?  I guess this is related to that innovative idea that quality of life can improve quality of work...I think the answer is pretty clear, but that's why I'm not in management...