PSA: Getting Tired of All This Sleep Talking

PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

GETTING TIRED OF ALL THIS SLEEP TALKING

PSA’s Andy Lenthall examines the importance of sleep on the road as well as safety and wellbeing.

I’d venture to argue that we do safety pretty well. Whatever gave rise to the vast leaps in understanding of legislation, standards and best practice, we hope that we played a small part. When tragedy strikes, it’s kind of upsetting that we’re really good at analysing what should have been done when it wasn’t done in the first place; the power of hindsight. Something that doesn’t often come into the frame when incidents are investigated is fatigue, which is odd because punishing schedules and long days are hot topics of discussion.

In last month’s column, we reported on the discussion at the ILMC Production day. This month at the Prolight + Sound exhibition, the safety conference day included yours truly in a panel discussion entitled ‘Nobody Should Be Proud to Work a 12 Hour Day’.

“12 hours?” I hear you say, “bloody part timers”. In a way, you’d be correct in your assertion. Back in 2013 the then PSA Chairman, James Cobb, conducted research into fatigue and its effect on accident rates in live production, statistically valid results revealed that, on average people’s working day is over 14 hours. He also found that on average people on tours/event sites are usually getting a little over five hours sleep as an average over the working period and nearly one in five are usually getting less than four hours over the working period. If that sounds familiar, we have a problem.

Research itself is not without its issues. Two studies that we’re aware of have been met with rather aggressive responses claiming that research will only lead to regulation, removing their rights to dictate their own working pattern.

A recent article published by the BBC entitled Sleep Myths ‘Damaging Your Health’ stated that New York University researchers said the belief that less than five hours’ shut-eye was healthy, was one of the most damaging myths to health. The classic alcoholic beverage to help you sleep was another issue tackled. It may feel like it helps you get to sleep, but the benefits are lost by its effects on sleep quality.

A quick online search reveals far better techniques for shutting the brain down before sleep, swing by www.rocknrollyogi.com for some tips from Becky Pell, one of your own, a highly experienced touring monitor engineer who happens to know rather a lot about yoga and relaxation.

Of course, it’s not just about your own health; lack of sleep can cause serious issues in the workplace. Looking back at James Cobb’s research, the correlation between fatigue and accidents was striking. Getting six hours sleep over two weeks equates to feeling like you’ve been awake for 24 hours. Anyone who’s been awake for 18 hours has their cognitive function effects similar to being over the drink drive limit. Would you want to work with people over the drink drive limit? You’re not just risking personal injury,

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PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE

impaired decision making or reactions can lead to others getting hurt. Mapping lost time injuries against lack of sleep highlighted some worrying statistics. It equated to one lost time injury every three years for everyone working in live events; that’s 15 times the construction industry’s accident record, a statistically significant link between work hours, sleep hours and accidents. Working backwards, if we reduce working hours to 12 hours per day, we’d prevent 15 % of those injuries, the figure for a 10 hour working day is 30%. In the UK alone there are 8,000 lost time injuries each year that wouldn’t happen if people weren’t fatigued. You might want to read that paragraph again, Cobb did, thoroughly.

It’s all well and good discussing the issue at a conference, calling for action, making suggestions, nodding in agreement, but Cobb presented his research findings at the same ILMC Production Meeting in 2013. Some people in a position to do something actually did; simple moves like single rooms instead of twin rooms and adherence to more reasonable working hours. Some did, many haven’t.

The findings were also presented to the Health and Safety Executive’s Joint Advisory Committee for Entertainment, they found it very interesting, nothing further was said. Don’t worry, they won’t be getting on the tour bus at 2am to ask you if you’re asleep any time soon.

At the Prolight + Sound event, we were asked if we need regulation, I suggested that we already do. France, for example, is much better at enforcing the working time directive. A long 18 hours shift for a member of UK crew might see two shifts of local crew. People still manage to earn a living and events still happen. Transport is the obvious example; a tour is planned and a transport provider engaged. Routes are set and the transport people get to work plotting routes, crossings and double/triple drives, ensuring that drivers comply with regulated hours and take their breaks accordingly.

The extra cost of extra drivers is accepted as the norm. Is that the case when allocating production crew? Pay one person for one day when two might mean reducing working days to a level where we avoid those 8,000 lost time accidents.

Bill Sapsis, US rigger of great repute was also on the panel in Frankfurt, he pointed out that promoters are no longer ‘mom and pop’ setups, they’re large organisations with global reach. How can these organisations afford to comply with regulation in one territory better than another? Best practice where required versus what we can get away with elsewhere.

This isn’t the first time we’ve mused fatigue and working hours in these pages, you’ll be forgiven for forgetting an article a decade or so ago that mentioned a landmark case where an employer was successfully prosecuted for causing a fatal road accident through long working hours. The victim had worked several 16 hour days and was driving home, he wasn’t driving for work.

How many fatalities in our sector have fatigue as a contributing factor; is fatigue considered in investigations? Does anyone consider the effects of fatigue when writing risk assessments? Even if it was, would that be referred to when it all hits the fan on site and an overnighter is the only option? Do we risk miracles becoming the norm every time they’re performed?

Perhaps we do have ourselves to blame then, perhaps it’s a question of enough people saying no until there’s nobody left to say yes. There’s also the difference between opportunities to rest and actually resting. What an individual does with their time off is their choice but sometimes other things are prioritised over much needed sleep. It’s the same with any job, but insurance giant Aetna has taken the step of rewarding employees for getting enough sleep. They can earn up to $300 extra per year for achieving seven hours or more sleep, with a $25 bonus for every 20 days they achieve the target.

Jealous? Well, that’s an office environment and perhaps more to do with productivity. We’re a dynamic, higher risk environment and better sleep is more connected with not having time off through injury, a bonus in itself.

We’ve probably had enough research, perhaps with the exception of actually engaging technology to properly measure sleep in various live production environments, something that we’ve started to look into. Wearable tech with built in sleep monitors seemed to be the answer, until we found that they don’t really work on a moving bus. Then again, do we really need to tell you if you’re tired or not? Perhaps we simply need to know when and how we stop talking the sleep talk and start walking the sleep walk? TPi www.psa.org.uk

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