Sounding the Alarm for the Sleep-Deprived
As the author of the recent New England Journal of Medicine article on too little sleep among long-haul truck drivers, I am dismayed by the lack of regard shown by workers and their managers about the impact of fatigue on public safety.
Should we immediately apply steep penalties against those who deprive workers of sleep? That may be a simplistic and unworkable fix for a more complicated problem. Deterrent penalties presuppose a general recognition of the problem. The public must view the dangers of fatigue with a deeper level of concern. Without that concern, the rules and penalties that govern workers’ schedules are as unlikely to be observed now as the principles of modern sanitary practices were observed when typhoid fever was common.
A relevant lesson comes from Henrik Ibsen’s play, “Enemy Of the People.” The protagonist, Dr. Stockmann, discovers contamination from a tannery in his town’s spring. This is not welcome news because the waters are believed to have healthful benefits and attract visitors whose spending is an important source of the town’s revenue. Declaring Dr. Stockmann to be an enemy of the people, the town continues to promote the spring’s commercial aspects.
Researchers who document the dangers of fatigue in the workplace have begun to feel a certain kinship with Dr. Stockmann. Increasingly, researchers find that our society unwisely requires workers to perform dangerous tasks at times when their physiology would have them sleep.
Workers now have longer shifts and less sleep. Yet at no time in history have workers been responsible for the vast amounts of potentially destructive power found with modern trucks, trains, ships and planes. When today’s workers fall asleep on the job, there can be consequences of unprecedented magnitude for the environment and public safety.
The news that fatigued workers represent an increasing danger is unwelcome to those who call for more economic efficiency. For the moment, the enemy of the people has been identified as the person who decries the dangers posed by sleepy employees. Eventually, however, businesses will be unable to treat as normal costs of doing business the expenses for attorneys and restitution associated with transportation and industrial catastrophes caused by the errors of fatigued workers.
An important step would be to force litigants in fatigue-related lawsuits to publish the details of their financial settlements. Now, such settlements are often kept secret by court order. Made public, a true enemy of the people would be recognized.
