Railroading and rest

[miyakoji]

Here's an interesting site called Railroaders' Guide to Healthy Sleep.  I know we have some railwaymen here on the board, and maybe others have occupations that similarly interfere with natural sleep patterns.

 

http://www.railroadersleep.org/

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

I am not a railroader, but I found the site interesting.  I took the sleeping disorder test.  It was interesting too however I think it is flawed because it fails to take into account the constant complaining of wife when I try to sleep.

[westfalen]

Pretty much standard stuff, our 'coping with shift work' sessions cover the same things.

 

What really gets you though is not the odd hours but that you go to work at a different time each day, every day's job is a different length in time and each day's job has a different workload, most people's idea of shift work, including, it turns out, some of those brought in to lecture us after the audience has fired a few questions back at them, is that you work a week of day shift (8am-4pm), a week of night shift (4pm-12am), maybe a week of 12am-8am if you're in a 24hr/day job then start over again, most railwaymen would love such regular hours.

 

I start at 0237 tomorrow morning on a job card that finishes with a four hour round trip on an all stops local where you need to be wide awake until the end so even though it's only 3.30pm I have to start thinking about having dinner and getting to bed, the next day I start at 0601 so my body clock will be some three and a half hours out of sync.

 

It's even worse for the guys working freight like the Union Pacific crews in the videos, at least we know what our shifts are for the duration of the current timetable.

[Eurostar25]

Interesting reading, similar to the times I find myself awake in aviation in this country, finish by 2am one day, 2 days later I'm up at 2:30am to start another 9hrs, it's certainly hard on the body clock!

[westfalen]

Another thing that affects those with families more than me is that weekends are an alien concept for railwaymen.

 

I'm not really complaining though, after 37 years in the railways I'm used to being home most or all of the day to get things done and can't imagine how 'normal' people cope with working 9 to 5/Monday to Friday leaving for work at dawn and getting home after dark.

[NXCALE]

This topic reminded me about a documentary I watched some time ago: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16928711

 

Cheers,

[NXCALE]

can't imagine how 'normal' people cope with working 9 to 5/Monday to Friday leaving for work at dawn and getting home after dark.

 

A possible answer is starting at 7:30 and finish at 3:30 if the workplace allowed it, of course.

 

Cheers,