Fighting off sleep at the office

The early morning nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island prove that sleep deprivation is a serious problem, but it's not one that network executives care to openly discuss. "We're all sleep deprived," admits one network manager who doesn't want to be named. Is exhaustion the great veiled headache in round-the-clock network operations? Large organizations contacted for this article deny the problem, claim night-shift employees prefer those hours, or don't want to talk about the issue.

Yet compared with their better-rested counterparts, tired workers are more irritable and prone to stomachaches, more likely not to report to work -- or to quit without warning -- and more accident prone, according to medical researchers. Sleep-deprived workers are also more likely to make mistakes that could bring down your network.

The three types of network professionals who are likely to suffer job-related sleep deprivation are night-shift network operators, technicians who put in lots of overtime to cope with emergencies, and jet-lagged net executives who travel through several time zones.

Help is on the way from a growing number of professionals who are devising viable, cost-effective ways to cope with sleep loss. One of the leaders in the field is Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, founder and CEO of Circadian Technologies, a Cambridge, Mass.-based consultancy. Among his recommendations:

Choose workers for the graveyard shift based on adaptability to odd working hours. Younger workers generally adapt better to night shifts. A transformation occurs around the mid-40s, when people begin working better during the day. There's a natural spread of preference in working hours. Most people fit in the middle, while about 20% work best at night; another 20% are best in the morning.

If your company rotates shifts, counterclockwise rotation is preferable; move workers from night to morning shifts, not the reverse.

Encourage night-shift workers to adhere to the same sleep schedule when not working. For example, night-shift employees should try to avoid activities early the next day.

Consider replacing the common five-day, eight-hour shifts with four-day, 10-hour shifts, or even three-day, 12-hour shifts. This gives workers more opportunities to catch up on sleep.

If a network emergency requires employees to work lots of overtime, provide them with transportation home or encourage them to take public transit. The chances of auto accidents are greatly multiplied if overtired employees drive themselves home.

Maintain temperatures on the cool side in network operations centers. Having a lot of light is also helpful, though this is difficult when workers need to focus on critical data displays.

To re-energize flagging workers, urge them to exercise in place. Even better, install treadmills they can use to trot in place during five- to 10-minute breaks. Employees should also know that too much coffee may prevent them from enjoying restorative sleep when they get home.

Suggest that late-shift employees and those who work overtime avoid heavy, hard-to-digest foods, such as red meat, during meal breaks.

Catnaps help, too

Another thing you can do to lessen lethargy is provide a nap room. These are conveniently located, lowly lit rooms equipped with reclining chairs or easy chairs -- no beds -- in which tired employees can grab 15- to 20-minute naps during their breaks. Short naps are better than longer ones because employees are less likely to awaken feeling sluggish.

A properly equipped nap room with six chairs, separating curtains and special phones that vibrate rather than ring, costs between $5,000 and $10,000.

While nap rooms may sound a bit out there, there is a precedent for napping at Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. When trains are stopped, crewmen can nap as long as one remains awake, and maintenance workers can nap in their vehicles during breaks, says Al Lindsay, general manager of safety and rules in Fort Worth, Texas.

About 28,000 of the company's employees are now permitted to take short naps if the opportunity arises. Eventually, the napping policy will extend to all 44,500 of the railroad's workers. "This was a huge change to our culture, so we're taking it a little bit at a time," Lindsay says.

The railroad also tries to educate its employees about sleep deprivation. For example, seriously sleep-deprived employees are urged to request referrals to local sleep-disorder centers from their physicians.

After all, Lindsay says, there's a big difference between grabbing a catnap and catching up for lost sleep on company time. "We want people as much as they can to come to work fully rested," he says.