Simulating Life at Sea
Try this experiment: next week, work 108 hours—OK, you can include your commute in that time frame. Then, on Friday, after getting up at 0530 and working until 1800, eat dinner, take an online class until 2100, then stay up and watch TV until 0130. Now get a cup of coffee, go to your car, and drive from Norfolk to New York, or San Diego to Los Angeles. Congratulations; according to the latest Government Accountability Office report on the Navy Work Week[1], you have just simulated a week at sea while standing the 02-07 watch of a standard Navy ship’s rotation. Well, sort of—to make this scenario realistic, you need to do that same routine once per day, but sleep, eat, and drive at a different time each day, for seven and a half months.
Like many on board Navy ships, I have lived this schedule several times in multiple deployments, and as a result, like many of my peers I was very tired for a lot of my professional life—and I hated it. As a junior officer, I stood a “five-and-dimes” watch rotation that closely resembles the introductory scenario and is fairly common in Navy ships. While in command of USS San Jacinto (CG-56), we used a circadian watch rotation (3 on/9 off) for deployment and worked with the Naval Postgraduate School and the Navy Operational Stress Control team to study the process. The results of this and other studies were very positive and well documented. I am convinced by several years of studying the data, reading research like the RAND study, and from personal experience at sea, that this process represents a significant opportunity to improve the alertness of the individual watchstander, who is a key part of the “kill chain.” It is a process that requires planning, communication, and research, but can yield incredible results at almost no cost. It does require a cultural change of mindset—one that dismisses the idea that fatigue is necessary and unavoidable or worse, a “badge of courage”—and prioritizes well-rested and alert watch teams above all else.
The Elephant in the Room
The Jeff Bacon Cartoon is funny, but a bit chilling in light of recent events. Was fatigue a factor in the collisions between Navy destroyers and merchant ships? Among the various speculative articles circulating about training, culture, and generic discussions of “stress on the fleet,” I have seen relatively little discussion about the potential role of fatigue. Perhaps it is still too soon to tell, but given the time of day (or night) when these events occurred (USS Porter [DDG-78), 0230; USS Fitzgerald [DDG-62] 0130; and USS John S. McCain [DDG-56], 0530), it certainly seems reasonable at least to look at fatigue as a possible contributor, perhaps even as a more personal manifestation of other fleet stresses that also are under discussion. My opinion: worth a look and perhaps the involvement of the NPS or other Navy Medical Research labs that have studied fatigue in ships and crews in the various investigations. The below graph is an example of the impact of a prolonged non-circadian watch rotation. It demonstrates how severe the impact of fatigue can be; such a graph can be generated for any watch stander on any rotation.
Figure 1. This Fatigue Avoidance Scheduling Tool (FAST) graph is based on actual data taken from an actual watch stander during an underway period as part of a graduate study[2]. It measures “effectiveness” in decision making based on fatigue and shows a corresponding Blood Alcohol Content that would yield similar performance (black line).
Everything You Need to Know You Learned in High School
There is nothing new here. You learned about circadian rhythms in high school. Studies show the correlation between fatigue and alcohol consumption and their predictable effects on the human body. The National Transportation Safety Board annual report on Maritime Mishaps lists fatigue as the first entry in its “Most Wanted List” and notes that Scheduling Policies are the main contributor.[3] Your body can survive longer without water than it can without sleep. In the past two years, The Surface Type Commander has issued two messages explaining the benefits of circadian watch bills and protected sleep, NAVSEA 08 has described the process and provided guidelines, and several entities including the Navy Safety Center enter have collaborated to assemble tools and resources to assist ships and crews in mitigating fatigue via the Navy Postgraduate School Crew Endurance website.
Figure 2. This chart shows the range of watch rotations available for various numbers of sections, with recommendations based on circadian nature of each rotation and available personnel.[4]
What Can I Do About It? A recent message directed the implementation of circadian watch rotations for deploying ships and provided guidance on where to look for resources[5]. Here is what I would tell a commanding officer, executive officer, or department head: you can do it! You can’t control your manning or operational schedule any more than you can the wind and seas—but you can mitigate them in much the same way. Much of this is well within your control; revising the watch rotation and the daily schedule are “controllable forces”—much like your engines and rudder. In addition to the primary benefit—although one former Commodore friend told me, “you had me at alert watchstanders!”—ships have reported improved productivity derived from a stable schedule, continuity across watch stations, and even a team-building effect that led to improved physical fitness, better leading, and increased morale. So what now? As a leader in the fleet today, I would do these things:
- Educate yourself. If you don’t have time, assign a junior officer to research topics like crew endurance, fatigue, and circadian rhythms and build a short brief. The science is there, and there are many tools on the NPS Crew Endurance Website, the Navy Safety Center, and the NTSB websites. Bust the myth that caffeine and energy drinks are a suitable substitute for sleep.
- Build a plan. The best time to start is long before deployment and build a four-section watch Bill, then set personnel qualification standards goals to support it. If not all areas can get to four sections, look at other alternatives. If you can get the key decision makers—officers of the deck, tactical action officers, engineering officer of the watch to four sections, that is already a win. Don’t lower the bar, but you might be surprised who can rise to the occasion and jump over it—an operations specialist as quartermaster of the watch, or a damage controlman third class as an engineroom rover; look past the rating badge and leverage the skill sets. Finally, remember that this is more than a watch rotation—there are three section options (many foreign navies and the cruise industry use 4/8)— and port and starboard (while not a great option) is circadian. Bottom line: focus on the guiding principles:
- Focus on alert watch standers above all else.
- Find and use a circadian watch rotation.
- Build a schedule that supports the watch standers and protects sleep.
- Consider tradeoffs and cross-qualifications.
- Execute and get feedback. There will be obstacles—ships have operational commitments to meet like underway replenishment, flight deck or boat operations, and major casualties. Meet with the chief petty officer mess and the crew and find out what processes are not working and address them. Look at everything—meal hours, briefs, training, drills, 1-MC announcements—through the lens of the guiding principles. Use the NPS Crew Endurance website and team to explore best (and worst) practices. Engage other ships who have used this process—there are many of them out there. And yes, it has been used on every platform—submarines, carriers, cruisers, and destroyers, even patrol coastal ships and mine countermeasure ships, and the new littoral combat ships—with examples of successful implementation. If not everyone can get to the same rotation, maybe the key decision-makers can get there and other follow later.
Figure 3. This chart shows one possible circadian rotation with recommended times for various scheduled activities and periods of “protected sleep.”[6]
Fatigue is a Leadership Issue
I have no official standing with regard to this process—everything here is opinion and advice based on my own personal experience, which includes two command tours, lead investigator on the USS Porter collision, and several years of graduate research on the topic. This is not purely an underway issue; I also recall being taken to task by a judge in traffic court as a department head when I attended a hearing for one of my officers who had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving home from a 12 hour shift rotation after working a seven-day week in the shipyard; the judge looked at me and said “you put him in this situation as his supervisor—if he had crossed the median and killed somebody, I would have come after you!” That drove home not only the alcohol-fatigue correlation (which is applied, by the way, in other industries like trucking and aviation) but also that this is a leadership issue—and a very personal one.
But what motivates me to discuss it in whatever forum possible is the number of Sailors and officers that share their overwhelmingly positive experience with this process—circadian watch rotations and supporting work/sleep schedules—and used phrases like “life-changing” to describe it. It is not a wonder drug, and applied incorrectly—like using a circadian watch rotation and not adjusting the schedule, or not respecting sleep periods—will result in “negative learning.” But I am convinced that the merits of this process will cause it to spread to the entire fleet and become the new culture within about a generation—when today’s division officers who have seen this process become department heads, and today’s department heads become commanding officers. But why wait? The science is there, the research is done, and there are opportunities right now for “high velocity learning” to avoid repeating others’ mistakes.
Your Sailors lives may depend on it.
Endnotes
[1] GAO-17-798T Readiness and Seapower and Projection Forces, 7 September 2017.
[2] Haynes, Leonard E., Comparison of Standard Navy Standard Work Week and Actual Work and Rest Patterns, Naval Postgraduate School, 2007.
[3] NTSB Presentation, Managing Fatigue in Maritime Waterways, April 2012.
[4] NPS Crew Endurance Handbook v1, released 1 August 2017.
[5] COMNAVSURFOR 200042Z SEP 17 – FORCE-WIDE CIRCADIAN RHYTHM IMPLEMENTATION.
[6] NPS Crew Endurance Handbook v1, released 1 August 2017.
Editor’s Note. For more on this topic, see the following Proceedings articles:
Let Our Sailors Sleep, By Machinist Mate Nuclear Senior Chief Jay Holley, U.S. Navy
Get Some Sleep!, By Debbie Vyskocil, BCN
A Sea Change in Standing Watch, By Captain John Cordle, U.S. Navy, with Dr. Nita Shattuck
Ship Collisions: Address the Underlying Causes, Including Culture, By Lieutenant Commander Erin Patterson, U.S. Navy Reserve
Go Pills for Black Shoes? By Commander Javier Gonzalez, U.S. Navy
