Don't even think about the future. A job stacking supermarket shelves would be better than what you're suffering, it would give you some leisure, better life expectancy, and time to look for something else.
To meet operational requirements! Oh how I don't miss that awful phrase! Its a joke as worrals said them H R types can't understand because they don't do it! And even if they did at some point, they've more than likely forgotton with only their favourite phrase of 'I had to do it once and I just got on with it' yeah sure its easy to say that on double the pay of most employees sat in a comfy office!!!
If it gets worse though speak to your doc, I've fallen asleep at the wheel before on the motorway and I was damn lucky now I think back. No job is worth risking your own health. I know I eventually had enough of putting the job before my own health, no management types listened and eventually push came to shove and off I went into the sunset!
speak to your doctor, explain the problem and ask him if he considers your sleep problem is due to stress If he agrees, get him to book you off as sick for a few weeks, and make sure the sicknote specifies stress, and the cause of that stress
workplace absence due to stress is a notifiable industrial disease under RIDDOR.....if enough of you do the same then the HSE may well take a keen interest in the company
In the interest of scientific research (nothing is too good for Jet Blast) the past two nights I took a couple of OTC "Kalms" before I went to bed. Sleep was a bit deeper than usual, but have had an unpleasant muzzy-headed woolly-brained feeling all next morning on both days.
Would not recommend them.
(I am of course quite willing to field-test other threads on JB., as they say, depending....)
At the height of my problem with chronic pain (the aftermath of a thoracotomy) I was prescribed dothiepin. Whilst it had a positive effect on my pain condition, it induced extremes of sleep, with me waking up just in time to take the next dose. Effective, but possibly excessively so. I was moved-on to yet another medication (one of which was Prozac).
For someone who struggles to sleep because of noise / light intrusion / disturbance the best £20 I have ever spent in aviation has to be the patented Sleep Master. Have bought one originally from the US they wear out after six months continuous use so the second one was from the UK... same thing but much better ear plugs (seem to remember the packet saying 36dBels which is the best you can get). The UK plugs are also more comfortable...only place I have found them this side of the pond is on ebay.co.uk item no 320998848140
The best consultant at arranging working time to suit both the employer and the employees was a bloke called Philip Lynch. Google the name. His website has been combined with another called something like workforce logistics.
You could suggest to your employer that everyone would gain by looking seriously at your work pattern.
One of my previous employers had once been a big UK employer of full 24/7 shiftworkers. We found that some loved shiftwork, whilst others just were not cut out for it, and hated it. However, what everyone agreed on (TUs, staff and boss class) was that having predictable rotas was the key. You clearly do not have predictable rotas. Whilst all the drugs such as melatonin and herbal teas might help, to really solve this isssue, I would suggest that better predictable rotas are required to find a proper solution.
Sounds counter intuitive, but I have drastically cut back on caffeine these recent weeks, and I also work Stupid shifts. Earlies to lates and back again.
My wife put me on to it. She hasn't had a drop of caffeine in years and sleeps like a baby. The thing is it actually works. I limit myself to 2-3 cups a day maximum and nil within 4- hours of planning to go to bed. Finally after years of insomnia and lying awake for hours counting sheep, I now fall asleep pretty much instantly (and not through fatigue just natural tiredness) and sleep the sleep of the righteous. May not work for you, but it did for me.
Been drinking non caffeine tea for about a month and noticed I have been sleeping better.
Caffeine-induced sleep disorder From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Caffeine-induced sleep disorder Classification and external resources ICD-9 292.85 Caffeine-induced sleep disorder is a psychiatric disorder that results from over consumption of the stimulant caffeine. "When caffeine is consumed immediately before bedtime or continuously throughout the day, sleep onset may be delayed, total sleep time reduced, normal stages of sleep altered, and the quality of sleep decreased."[1]
And caffeine gives me serious migraines the next day or two.
I spend a fair number of nights every month on aircraft, as SLF, generally with a morning meeting at the other end, often over multiple time zones (London Singapore, Athens Mumbai, Singapore Johannesburg this month, for instance).
I use Sominex, an over-the-counter, antihistamine-based product. Washed down with a bloody mary, and I'll sleep till the pretty lady brings my breakfast, with none of that nasty feeling of waking up after being hit with a cosh that you get from some other preparations.
I don't use it often though - only when I think I'll need it - so I can't tell you what its long term effects are.
300-600 check your maths... after postage just under £20 on ebay...just over on Amazon
Crippen : Never tried A380 noise cancelling headsets (I'd guess they are similar technology to our flight deck SNR headsets). That is OK if you sleep on your back all night but I always sleep with one ear on a pillow and solid ear defenders give me a bad neck. The mask / plugs package we are talking about is comfortable and stays in place whatever your head position.
Reynoldsno1 : I used to take night nurse but found the drowsy one slowed my reactions almost 24 hours after I took it (so no use unless your not flying the next day). The non drowsy version just doesn't work for me.
Well I reckon I've got an unbeatable solution. There is one particular golf course in Mallorca which I don't like but more or less have to play once a year in May for a particular competition. I won't name it because that's not fair and, anyway, lots of other players like it a lot!
I simply lie down in the dark, shut my eyes and imagine in detail playing this course. From getting lined up on the first tee, I visualise the fairway ahead and play the drive, watching the flight and run of the ball until it stops. Then I toddle off up the fairway to my imagined ball, choose the club for the approach to the green and play on and then putt out and off to the second hole. I have never reached the fourth hole. Sometimes, just for a change, I play off the tenth hole instead and it works just as well.
Obviously you need to have a course in mind because you need to be able to imagine it in detail from each appropriate point.
Before anybody beats me to it, I can hear you all saying "that it only works because golf is so bloody boring anyway!". That may or may not be true but it works absolutely 100% of the time with no drugs and no drink - it's not even fattening!
Another favourite of mine was counting down backwards from 100 and trying to visualise each number before moving on to the next number.Failing that,if not going in that night.a good bottle of Rioja.Never fails.
Wow, they've gotten cheaper. We tried to buy one as a retirement gift for a colleague (it's that sort of workplace ) and they were all hundreds of dollars.
) and they were all hundreds of dollars.
