Sleep deprivation

[Athene V30]

Feel guilty posting in this forum as a weekend and one or two week a year cruising sailer but I am thinking about future plans and in particular longer distance short or most likely single handed sailing.

How do others cope with lack of sleep on long passages and balance the needs of the boat / look out etc with getting sufficient sleep? What pattens do others find they can get into and work on say a 12 to 18 day passage.

Thanks

 

[lindsay]

For a scientific answer trawl the internet for "multiphasal sleep" or multiphasic. Then you will get into examples of how sailors have applied it, including "our Ellen".

Personally, I found that a reasonable dose of fear and coffee does the trick.

 

[Grehan]

What I have found really scary - just the one time, mind you - was being if not scared, then at least anxious about being out in a gale, and so tired I was almost hallucinating, trying to stay awake to be 'in control'. Like driving, tired, late at night, when the head nods involuntarily. I had had coffee, but after some 'tiredness line' was crossed I think it ceased to affect me.
Since then I've made efforts to (try to) avoid the situation and I carry ProPlus tablets for an emergency caffeine hit but haven't needed to use them. And now we're safely tucked up inland I guess the potential situation's gone. But I've never forgotten the lesson.

 

[asteven221]

Interesting question. I have thought exactly the same thing when considering the future and setting off on our dream voyage, sailing with SWMBO. I am not sure if or how I could cope without decent sleep as I don't like being very tired at anytime. In fact the whole idea of not getting sleep puts me off long passages i.e. single passage of several days, as my philosophy is to enjoy the boating experience - not quitting the ratrace just to to be miserable on a boat. I would be interested to read what the experienced forumites have to say as it can't be that bad or nobody would do it. Sorry for being naive, but how do single handers manage say a 10 days passage? What happens in terms of watch, when they are asleep?

 

[MASH]

[ QUOTE ]
it can't be that bad or nobody would do it. Sorry for being naive, but how do single handers manage say a 10 days passage? What happens in terms of watch, when they are asleep?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, Military techniques for intelligence gathering have long been based on the debilitating effects of sleep deprivation - there is virtually nothing that affects the concious mind as catastrophically as sleep deprivation. It just stops working normally. If they reckon that a driver who has been at the wheel for 10 hrs is as dangerous as one who has had 4 pints then just how much use do you imagine you are after 20???

As far as "What happens in terms of watch when asleep", well, I really don't know how to explain that, if you can't imagine it yourself....

 

[Conachair]

Just did a week from canaries to madeira solo. Possibly put a little too much faith in radar alarm, only time it went off on this trip was far a small squall but woke me for a yacht 3 miles away going across biscay so seems to work. I find that i need to get away from land and any shipping routes as quickly as poss, then I can relax a bit. Also, as soon as i feel the slightest bit tired get my head down, any time of day or night twenty mins helps. Spending more time down below I find less tiring than getting fried in the cockpt as well. Also very important to preserve energy straight away, if you stay awake through the first night you'll never be exhausted for the rest of the rip. Coming up here once i was away from everything I tried setting alarm for a hour at a time then quick look about and back to sleep again. Though once i slept through the alarm for maybe 3 or more hours. Didn't see any traffic for 5 days, nothing, not even a jet overhead. If i was in an area with more traffic then things would be very different & I'd certanly be a lot more alert! I think it's important as well to double/triple check every major decision, lack of sleep can really mess up your judgement. Saying that, you can go a long way in short hops. I find i can do a day/night/day quite easily with a few catnaps in the cockpit. But don' let it put you off, singlehanding you really get to know the boat and yu learn a lot about sailing safely and being prepared.
Enjoy

 

[pyrojames]

I (we) found that hallucinations were par for the course doing passages of over about 5 days. We did 3 on 3 off with the two of us, and slept 3 3 hour shifts a day, just about. Being able to go to sleep when your head hits the pillow is critical. Other long termers do 6 on 6 off, with a change at midnight or 1am, and then a knap each during theday. However you do it sleep deprivation is going to get you at some stage. Just try and be aware which things are hallucinations and which are not. I kept seeing water spouts and lights where their weren't any, my partner saw a lifeboat full of people come alongside mid ocean!

 

[maxi77]

There is an argument that fewer longer periods of sleep are better. 1 in 2 watchkeeping is very draining and really needs to be done on a 24 hour basis with off watch time being real off watch. Doing this does allow quite prolonged periods without too many probles, we did it for months at a time in submarines, but you are always teetering on the edge

 

[Deleted member 478]

When I did my single handed transat, if I was closer than 40NM to something I could park the boat on, I would stay awake until I was outside of the 40NM range. The logic being that if I fell asleep and it turned into a very deep one, at 5 knots, I'd have 8 hours before I clobbered the beach, so there would be a good chance of waking up.

At sea, I slept as much as possible. The logic being that should something happen, I would be well rested and able to stay awake for a least 24 hours.

Even on crewed crossings where a formal watch has been in place, there have been several days between sightings of ships. Yes, several days, and even then, they were on the horizon so the chance of a collision was zero.

The old anecdote of there being more chance of being run over by a bus in a city is so true - I'd rather be far out too sea and asleep than cross Oxford Street in broad daylight.

 

[Troutbridge]

Yeah, not sure Stingo. On my one & only (so far) transat we crossed tracks with a yacht, at first light, where obviously nobody was on watch. Estimated distance was 40 metres at the closest so, OK, had we have been asleep as well we would have missed. Not sure if that proves your point or not, to be honest. Just done (early June) single-handed Biscay. I slept more than I meant to, but in general had a pleasant crossing. I did, however, wake up on a couple of occasions and found that either a coaster/small ship had crossed my track or I'd passed a yacht going the other way. I have no way of knowing if anybody had to alter course to avoid me, although I did have ch16 on continuously, so I'm assuming if somebody had been calling I would have woken up.
There's a good argument that says at night, even keeping a continuous lookout, you'd never see a half submerged container or sleeping cetecian. From my experience of mid-Atlantic night watches that's probably true. The other argument was made by Jimmy Cornell, in one of his surveys when he found that boats that kept a strict watch system saw more ships in an Atlantic crossing than those who were more relaxed about it.
Taken to an extreme, I suppose you could say reef well down at night and get a good eight hours in. Certainly (from experience) if the boat starts to misbehave you'd wake up and the benefit is you'd be well rested to cope with anything unforeseen. Certainly, my biggest cock-ups have occurred when I've woken up in the middle of the night and had a good idea, then acted on it without thinking it through properly first [AND you can apply that to all aspects of life, can't you /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif ] /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif