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ShawTV: Fatigue Science on go! Vancouver with Johanna Ward

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go! Vancouver‘s Johanna Ward met Fatigue Science CEO, Sean Kerklaan, last fall at the BCTIA’s ConnectFX here in Vancouver. She was so intrigued by how our technology could help both athletes optimize their game-time performance and workers operate more safely on the job, that we invited her back to Fatigue Science headquarters to learn more.

In the segment, Sean shows Johanna how Readiband technology works, how managing sleep can improve performance in the workplace, and shares a few tips for a good night’s sleep. Have a watch:

Sleep and athlete recovery

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Sleep is important to athletes for a number of reasons, including overall performance and recovery. Think about all the star athletes, who reportedly sleep about 9, 10, or 11 hours a night!

We came across this short video with endurance sports coach, Sage Rountree, talking about the importance of sleep to recovery and performance for runners and multi-sport athletes. “Make good sleep a priority,” she says, “and you will be a better athlete.”

Some key takeaways:

  • Sleep is critical to recovery
  • Sleep requirements are individual, but 8-9 hours per night is a ‘noble goal’
  • Poor sleep can be both an indicator of overtraining and a contributing factor to it

She also shares a few tips which  both athletes and workers might find useful in helping to wind down and prepare for a good night’s sleep.

Westjet near accident: YVR fatigued air traffic controller

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Fatigue Science was asked to analyze how Fatigue contributed to the Westjet incident at Vancouver’s YVR Airport on April 15th, 2011.

Fatigue related accidents and close calls are completely preventable. Employers can be proactive and have their work schedules examined by the Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool (FAST). This will tell them whether their schedules are creating dangerous periods of time when workers would be at a high risk of making a mistake or having an accident. It allows them to manage the risk to prevent the accidents from happening.

FAST was developed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research at the U.S. Army Medical Research Development Command to prevent fatigue related accidents and has been independently validated by the US Department of Transportation. FAST is used by many industries globally and is recommended by the world’s largest re-insurance company MunichRe.

Pilots of USA Airforce One use FAST to review schedule rosters before flight and ensure fatigue is not a risk factor.

The Canadian government and many Canadian industries are just beginning to address this important issue. Some have tried in the past but with FAST and Readibands they are now able to upgrade their fatigue management programs to a modern, evidence based system.