Fatigue Management

Decreased Vigilance. Soldiers become less alert. They may fail to detect
targets, especially during monotonous tasks or in tedious environments.
Operation of surveillance devices is especially effected. Tasks requiring
sustained attention are the most adversely affected by sleep deprivation.
Slowed Comprehension and Learning. It takes longer to understand any
form of information; for example, it may take an excessive amount of time to
comprehend a message or to find a location on a map.
Encoding/Decoding Difficulties. It
becomes more difficult to transform data or
to process information; for example, map
coordinates are decoded slowly, and
mistakes are made while doing it.
Hallucinations. Sometimes when fatigue is
very severe and stimulation is low, the tired
brain starts to see and hear things that are
not there. As these illusions can be very real,
the soldier may respond inappropriately.
Muddled Thinking. Reasoning becomes
slow and confused. Even simple tactical
situations may ‘stump' the soldier. This can
deteriorate to irrational thoughts, poor logic
and false beliefs (delusions).
By now the company had been on patrol for just on six
weeks. I could feel that we were losing our zip as I was
having to correct faults and kick backsides more than ever
before. The hard yakka of patrolling in the wet and living
on hard rations was taking its toll. It was our first really
long stint on operations and the strain of remaining
constantly alert and watching your arcs all the time,
coupled with the physical effort of scrub bashing and
interrupted sleep for gun piquet, had worn us out. We were
jaded.
Lieutenant Gary McKay
Vietnam, July 1971
In Good Company, 1987
Faulty Short-term Memory. Recall of recent events is faulty. The content of
a radio message may be immediately forgotten or recalled incorrectly. The
ability to assimilate new information is badly degraded.
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