Do You Get Enough Sleep?

Lack of sleep is known to have a significant negative impact on our health. According to the World Sleep Society, next-day effects of poor quality sleep include reduced attention span, reduced memory recall and reduced learning.* In his book ‘Why We Sleep’, neuroscientist Matthew Walker states: ‘Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that makes you live longer. It enhances your memory, makes you more attractive. It keeps you slim and lowers food cravings. It protects you from cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu. It lowers your risk of heart attacks and stroke, not to mention diabetes. You’ll even feel happier, less depressed, and less anxious. Are you interested?’

The miraculous drug that achieves all these things is sleep. So for all of us, getting enough sleep matters.

The Sleep Problem in GB Rail

The GB rail industry has specific challenges related to sleep. Fatigue has been identified as a factor in 21% of high-risk incidents, and insufficient sleep and long periods of being awake are known to be two key contributors to fatigue.**

In 2018 RSSB carried out an industry-wide fatigue survey, which collected data from over 7,800 members of GB rail staff. Over 40% of respondents reported getting six hours or less sleep when working day shifts and this figure was even higher (over 60%) when working nights. This matters because getting six hours or less of sleep has been linked with impaired performance in safety-critical tasks.

Most worryingly, 11% of shift workers surveyed reported that, by the time they finished work, they had been awake for 18–24 hours at least once during the previous week. Being awake for 18-24 hours is equivalent to being over the drink-drive limit. So for these workers that means there’s been at least one occasion in the last week in which some aspects of their performance have probably suffered impairment equivalent to being over the drink-drive limit.

Addressing Sleep Problems in The Rail Industry

RSSB’s survey concluded there are several actions that need to be taken to understand and address insufficient sleep. This includes continuing to educate staff on the importance of sleep and addressing the home-life related causes of a lack of sleep. Wellbeing champions are really important in this, because they are best placed to promote health campaigns and encourage colleagues to live a healthier lifestyle. They can also be the ‘go to’ individuals for those in need of a listening ear. To achieve this, wellbeing champions need to be competent and well-supported.

RSSB’s Wellbeing Champions Training

With the industry’s involvement, RSSB has developed a Wellbeing Champions Training course that provides participants with an understanding of the four key health pillars – of which sleep is one. In the training we discuss:

Magdalena Wronska, a Wellbeing Champions trainer at RSSB said; “Sleep is often a part of rail organisations' health and wellbeing initiatives, so we consider ways to promote these initiatives so colleagues pay more attention to sleep patterns and sleep hygiene as part of health and wellbeing initiatives.”

We recognise that every organisation is different. Based on the maturity of your Wellbeing Champion programme, we can work directly with you to customise a course that meets the requirements of your teams or business. In addition, pre and post training evaluations can be developed to measure the impact of the course.

Other RSSB Mental Health Courses:

• E-Learning courses on Mental Health Awareness at Work and Managing Mental Health at Work, designed with leading mental health charity Mind specifically for the rail industry.
• Mental Wellbeing for Line Managers course a course that helps build line managers’ capability to spot signs that someone is struggling and provide the information they need to better support good mental wellbeing in their teams.

* World Sleep Society
** A feast-and-famine pattern of sleep: Do railway staff get the sleep they need? - ScienceDirect