Over the course of the past couple weeks my sleep and work schedule have been completely interrupted by operational commitments. My normal sleep schedule is from 0330 to 1030 in the morning. Followed by a simple morning routine of waking up around 1030, making a cup of coffee and going to the gym. I would get home from the around 1230 in the afternoon with enough time to make lunch and cook a healthy dinner before I head to work around 1400. My original work schedule before the commencement of high tempo operations was from 1500-0300 in the morning. With the increase of the workload combined with extremely late flight operations everything shifted to the right. My working hours shifted to 1500-0430 sometimes 0500 in the morning depending on what kind of maintenance was required to be performed based on the health of the aircraft. I would get home around 0530 some mornings which i would shift my sleep schedule to the right about 30 minutes to make up for the required hours of sleep. While the shift in the original working hours did not affect me initially over time they played a critical role in what transpired over the next couple weeks.
Patterns and Issues
With the extended working hours, I adjusted everything that I could in order to at least at the bare minimum maintain a healthy lifestyle with adequate amount of sleep coupled with an effective fitness scheduled and eating healthy. Towards the end of the first week my sleep and eating habits begin to faultier. Not that I started eating unhealthy but i was unable to maintain a healthy food intake. I had to substitute fully cooked chicken breast for tuna packs, protein shakes and hard boiled eggs that I was able to purchase at a convenience store on my way to work because i did not have enough time to properly cook my meals. During my second week of working extended hours I altered my fitness routine from what I was originally doing to a quick modified version which would reduce the possibility of injury due to the lack of sleep which was at the time out of my control. On day 11 with no day off, I made a choice to completely change my workout all together instead of going to the gym I stayed at home and did push-ups, situps, and body squats. I was unable to maintain a legitimate fitness routine, complete my homework assignments on time. My sleep routine at this point was simply non-existent because I was extremely tired to the point that I was unable to sleep. I would simply lay in bed for a couple hours not knowing if I actually slept at all because I was so exhausted. The stress of the job coupled with an extreme high volume of operational commitments did have a negative impact on my thought process because i was unable to maintain effective outlet from the stressors of work. The behavioral aspects did change over the course of the study. My attitude went from ok it is what it is to I can't believe we are working all these hours with no support from the maintenance shift. That became my mindset going into the second week(Brody, 2013).
Reflection and Conclusion
Reflecting upon the past two weeks, I realized that my emotions shifted from that being positive in nature to negative in nature because I was so sleep deprived and that I was unable to maintain two very important outlets eating healthy and having the opportunity to go to the gym(Bergland, 2015). If I would have simply maintained the tuna packs and hard boiled eggs diet from the beginning my attitude and emotions would have been checked and that i would have been more productive in my personnel development. Attitude is everything, once you begin to have a negative attitude about the situation, it starts to have a impact on every aspect of your life if you allow it too. This was the biggest realization that I have had with doing this assignment. It is so important to find the positive in anything, such as i could always be worse at least i still have a job and have the ability to provide for my family.
References
Brody, Yosef. (2013) Losing Sleep in the 21st Century.Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/limitless/201305/losing-sleep-in-the-21st-century
Bergland, Christopher. (2015) Sleep Loss Disrupts Emotional Balance via the Amygdala https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/201512/sleep-loss-disrupts-emotional-balance-the-amygdala