Fatigue Management

Table 7. Food as a Fatigue Management Tool
1. Meals made up largely of carbohydrates are known to facilitate better sleep.
2.
Meals made up largely of protein are considered to assist wakefulness and
work activity.
3. Regular meal timings help to regulate the circadian cycle.
4. During the night shift, main meals should be eaten before 0100 hrs.
5.
In the morning after night shift, a light snack of carbohydrates should be
taken no later than two hours before expected sleep time.
One grievance was Monash's policy of not normally
issuing rum: he provided soup, Oxo and coffee to exhausted
and cold men coming out of the line, but his experience
with the 4th Brigade lead him to believe, on purely medical
grounds, that rum did more harm than good.
Geoffrey Serle
John Monash: A Biography, 1982
Fatigue Management: What the
Commander Can Do
The commander can assist in the
managment of fatigue by implementing
the following measures:
a. Use training to ensure all personnel know their tolerance to sleep
loss and to develop the ability to nap, regardless of the situation.
b. Include sleep requirements in operational planning and sacrifice
sleep plans only in dire circumstances. Different sleep plans may
need to be prepared for each potential operational scenario.
c. Allow adequate sleep before an operation. Sleep cannot be stored,
but avoid sleep debt (that is, the amount of sleep required to
restore normal performance levels) in yourself and your
personnel.
d. Monitor sleep periods in yourself, your subordinates and superiors
during operations. Use a formal sleep/activity diary or set aside
space in your field notebook. Be aware that during deployment
many inexperienced soldiers are too excited or nervous to sleep.
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