Fatigue Management

After their arrival in southern Croatia from Chilliwack,
B.C., 1 Combat Engineer Regiment worked 21 days
straight. Now, to reduce fatigue, the sappers rotate two
days in the minefield with one in camp.
John Howse
On Deadly Duty, in
Canada at War, 1995
Table 3 suggests a remarkable consistency of symptom patterns across
contingents in Bosnia. Signs of fatigue are quite common. In one contingent,
nearly 14 per cent of respondents reported being ‘overly tired' either ‘often' or
‘very often’.
Table 3. Signs of Fatigue in Three Canadian Force Contingents in Bosnia
Percentage of sample
Sign of fatigue
Contingent A
n = 512
Contingent B
n = 168
Contingent C
n = 420
1. Headaches 54.6 63.1 52.5
2. Trouble sleeping 50.8 45.4 48
3. Being cranky/easily annoyed 46.7 48.8 40.3
4. Overly tired/lack of energy 41.7 51.5 37.9
5. Loss of interest in things 30.8 25.1 23.9
6. Difficulty concentrating 30.1 31.5 27.9
7. Minor accidents 14.8 18.5 16
8. Mental confusion 14.1 10.7 10
9. Difficulty making decisions 12.2 14.4 11.7
10.
Taking medication to sleep or
calm down
8.8 6.6 4.8
To measure signs of strain, respondents were asked to indicate how often
they had experienced each of 36 items in a "list of troubles or complaints
people sometimes have ... over the last few weeks" on a four point scale
from ‘never' through ‘sometimes' and ‘often' to ‘very often’.
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