Civilian question for cops who are shift workers.
What is the impact on a police officer performance when seriously sleep deprived? I've worked a swing shift for years in a factory and have been on this desperate quest for improved sleep quality. I have tried everything from alcohol to prescription narcotics, prescription sleep aids (all long since abandoned) and then lastly to over the counter stuff like Benadryl. None of it worked. Sleep quality and also work performance began a steady decline. It showed up as slower reaction time, more errors, more serious life threatening errors, numbers and letters coming out backwards on my charting, poor judgment in areas long since mastered, temper, anger, frustration, fires, minor explosions, equipment damage and on and on. I have to double or triple my safe following distance in traffic. Fallen asleep at the wheel countless times. Completely rested and alert none of these are issues. But none of my errors can have the devastating consequences of helping to set a city or a whole country on fire. I might get three days off or I might get fired, might even loose a finger but my family does not have to go into hiding because of my work place mistake.
So how do cops handle shift work and go about getting the proper rest for best performance at work? Are the consequences of shift work and its impact on the body and mind recognized by your employers?