Ah, sleep.
The time of day that we college students look forward to the most, even from the moment we awaken from it. Yet, it’s one of the rarest commodities; yes! The most elusive of luxuries. Thankfully, we don’t have to sacrifice it for the good of our grades or our social life. Wait, WHAT? That’s right. You don’t have to sacrifice sleep to get the most out of college. In fact, it’s easy to get more sleep and to feel more rested so that you’re not always running on empty–and, might I propose, to get the FULL college experience. The Four Easy Steps
What About My Grades and Social Life? The thing is, once you start getting more sleep, you start getting way more productive during the day. You finish homework more quickly, retain information better, and study more effectively. It even makes sitting through classes easier and less of a drag. And once you set that boundary (bed time) for yourself, you learn how to set boundaries in other areas of your life. That means that your self-control increases…and you have control of your life. Now, since you’re finishing school work more quickly, you’ll find more time to spend with the people you love and to do fun things. You’ll find that you are more effective at managing your time–so you don’t have to sacrifice your friendships for sleep! Now…I’m not saying that you have to be perfect. This is tough for me sometimes–coincidentally, I decided to undertake the task of writing a post about getting more sleep during the same week that I’ve actually been getting less of it. Now, it’s Friday, and I’ve ended up sick! Learn from my mistake (and many, many mistakes past)!
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When a yacht is on charter, guests are onboard at any time of day or night therefore watch keeping by the crew is a 24/7 business. You can also expect to work 14 – 18 hours a day in sweltering and humid weather conditions in full uniform as has been the case this week in Italy.
Fortunately for me, or unfortunately perhaps [depending on how you look at it] and as being the new deckhand onboard, I’ve been given the arduous duty of working the graveyard shift from 1am – 6am every morning. So what is involved on my shift? Well, I’m glad you asked – think scrubbing the decks and washing down a 50 meter yacht all on your own with intermittent and regular trips to the bridge to make sure that there are no emergency alarms, radar warnings or other potential emergency situations present onboard. The end result is total exhaustion or what is otherwise referred to as ‘crew burnout’. How To Survive Crew Burnout I have read many articles and publications on the subject, but this is the first time I have experienced it first hand. In the process I have learnt a few basic principles to help overcome this effect and it has made all the difference to my experience being a good one or a forgettable one. First and foremost, working fourteen hour days and managing a hectic schedule in any business will eventually send your stress levels through the roof. At this stage, it’s important that you don’t sweat the little things! This really can be anything from your dinner being served late to the 1st mate barking down the UHF radio to you to about your stern lines – the context is somewhat irrelevant here as they of course will be specific to you, but whatever you do…don’t sweat it! Keep in mind that you’re all under pressure to get things done as quickly and professionally as you can. Secondly, I’ve found that stimulants [as much as I like coffee] are not the best thing to push you through the last couple of hours of your work day or for that matter, if taken in large quantities during the day. They either keep you up during your highly valued rest periods [which can be any time of day] or if taken in any large quantities, they can cause your energy levels to fluctuate up and down or quite simply crash all together and for deckhands operating cranes, powerboats and other machinery it's simply not worth the risk. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, the biggest help to surviving crew burnout [apart from sleep] is this - you must take every opportunity you have available to you to let off some steam and have fun! For me at least, being a deckhand is great in that you are responsible for all the ‘toys’ onboard. |
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