fatiguesafety

Fatiguesafety is an integrated approach to reducing safety hazards caused by human fatigue by combining fatigue management with general safety practices and human factors principles. It recognizes that fatigue, sleep loss, and circadian disruption can degrade vigilance, judgment, and performance, and it seeks to apply controls across work design, policies, and organizational culture.

The concept is relevant in sectors with high fatigue exposure, including transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, emergency services, and the military. Implementation is typically aligned with broader safety programs and often organized within a fatigue risk management framework that structures assessment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.

Core components include governance and policy, shift and task design to minimize fatigue exposure, rest and recovery provisions (breaks, naps where appropriate, vacation scheduling), education on sleep and fatigue, and reporting systems. Monitoring may use self-report scales, performance metrics, or objective measures where appropriate, while respecting privacy.

Practical methods comprise fatigue risk assessment, prioritizing high-risk tasks, thresholds for intervention, and feedback loops for learning. Technology such as scheduling tools, alertness monitoring, and decision-support systems can help, but should complement, not replace, adequate staffing, robust safety culture, and worker engagement.

Benefits include lower accident rates, improved reliability and decision quality, and better worker well-being. Limitations include measurement challenges, privacy and consent considerations, costs, potential underreporting, and the need for sustained leadership support and cross-disciplinary collaboration.