NAVIGATION BRIEFING
Sleep deprivation and offshore sailing go hand in hand for navigators, and in particular for short-handed sailors. There’s no getting away from the fact that tiredness profoundly affects our performance.
Lack of sleep can severely degrade our decision-making abilities. The latest scientific research into sleep, such as brain scans carried out by leading neuroscientist and sleep specialist Professor Matthew Walker, has shown how we are more likely to make flawed decisions when tired, sometimes with big consequences.
The military use sleep deprivation in training and selection procedures and have been at the forefront of research into its effects. Sleep education was considered tanker grounding and oil spill, to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the fatal Air France crash in 2009.
