Fatigue and Exercise

I was working out with a personal trainer at the gym last Friday morning. That's something I've been doing twice a week over the past year. I've come to enjoy the frank discussions we have about my personal health and wellbeing as I recover between working sets. It is a benefit of the training sessions I never anticipated.

We were discussing the challenges I have been facing over the past few weeks surrounding the issue of fatigue, both physical and mental. One  of the things that came up was that despite the fact I was feeling really tired and worn down I was experiencing times of feeling relaxed and content while at the wheel.  And it's happening more frequently lately. I'm not saying that improved physical fitness is the panacea to all the hurdles and pitfalls we face as truck drivers but I believe it is a major contributing factor.

What else should we be paying attention to as professional drivers? How about sleep, home time, and diet for starters. In turn, all of those things contribute to the state of our mental health and & emotional well being.

Even More on Fatigue

So it turns out my little experiment with taking more frequent and shorter sleep breaks between shorter drive times did not work out as well as I had planned. It works to get you by but using it over a longer period of time only adds to my fatigue, it certainly did not alleviate it.

The last 3 or 4 days have proven to be a refresher course in sleep and fatigue. The point that has been driven home is that there is no substitute for me when it comes to the natural circadian rhythms my body falls into. The bottom line is I need to rest at night and work during the day.

I found myself to be completely worn down when I got home on Monday. It made it easy for me to see how high levels of fatigue add to your daily stress. It made it impossible for me to meet all of my goals for the day. Frustrating when you have been looking forward to that time off at home.

A Short Week to Reduce Fatigue?

So I'm doing a switch this weekend in Northern Ontario. I try to do that once each month because it gives me some extra days off during the week. I leave on a Friday night and get home late Sunday or early Monday morning. It's all part of my plan to reduce my own fatigue and spend more time with my family. It works pretty well if everything goes according to plan. Of course everything always goes according to plan in the trucking industry. Lol.

This weekend there was a major winter storm in southern Ontario so I didn't get away until late on Friday night. Terrace Bay is approximately 1270 kilometers 1 way from my home terminal. I arrived in Terrace Bay at 10:00 p.m. on Saturday and my switch arrived at 01:30 on Sunday morning. Normally I would complete the switch by taking 2 full 8 hour breaks between 3 driving shifts. But because of delays this weekend I have ended up having to split my sleeper berth time and take a series of shorter breaks between shorter driving periods.

Although I don't feel too bad right now the question is how will I feel tomorrow at 4 o'clock in the morning when I arrive at the terminal. Do I go straight home or take another nap in the truck? How will this affect my time off this week? I guess the answer will come tomorrow, and the day after.

But for now it's time to jump in the bunk and try to get a good solid 3 hours sleep so I can get up and drive the last 5 hours to the yard. *sigh*

"That's trucking". Lol.

Fatigue

I'm finding that as I age I have a continuing problem with sleep debt. It's an account I just can't seem to bring into balance. I've been experimenting with different ways of acquiring the required amount of rest I need. I'm finding that shorter periods of rest more frequently appear to be the answer for me. But at the same time I'm having great difficulty fitting that into a very busy schedule and meeting all of my a obligations.

Truck driving is a frustrating profession when it comes to getting the amount of rest you require. For many drivers a work day does not have a fixed starting and ending point. Working day shifts and night shifts within the same week disrupts the sleep cycle. Fatigue is so common place that most drivers don't even recognize they suffer as a result of  it. I believe it is the major contributor to poor diet, lack of exercise, and stress on the job for professional drivers.

The problem is there are so many contributing factors to driver fatigue that finding a solution seems insurmountable. This is the problem I have been facing over the last 1 to 2 weeks. So many of those contributing factors are beyond my control and I tire of hearing from people within the industry, "that's trucking". In other words, they don't have a solution either.

Frustrating stuff.