An Assessment of the CF Submarine Watch Schedule Variants for Impact on Modeled Crew Performance

Abstract

In support of the Board of Inquiry (BOI) investigating the October 2005 fire on board HMCS Chicoutirni, DRDC Toronto was asked to model crew cognitive effectiveness at the time of the fire and at the time of casualty evacuation approximately 28 hrs after the fire. The results of this modeling effort (based on sleep behavior estimates) suggested that our submariners were operating at significantly reduced levels of cognitive effectiveness. Therefore DRDC Toronto was tasked to conduct an at-sea trial, this time using real actigraphically-derived sleep data in order to more accurately model the impact of the watch schedule on crew cognitive effectiveness. Twenty-one submariners participated as subjects in this at-sea trial. Three of these subjects were non-watch-standers: Commanding Officer (CO), Coxswain (COXSN) and Chief Engine Room Artificer (CERA), 6 subjects were from the 1-in-2 back-watch, 6 subjects were from the 1-in-2 front-watch, and 6 subjects were from the 1-in-3 engineers' watch. The trial took place on a Canadian submarine during a 13-day transatlantic return to Halifax. All subjects wore wrist activity monitors (actigraphs) in order to measure their daily sleep patterns quantitatively. The subjects also maintained a daily activity and sleep log, and performed daily iterations of the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT). The modeled cognitive effectiveness was worse than the previous modeling efforts for Chicoutimi which used sleep behavior estimates. The activity and sleep log data indicated increasing difficulty arising from sleep and a decrease in subjective levels of `restedness' over days at sea. Alertness also decreased over days at sea. Each of the 1-in-2 front and back-watches were less `happy' than their 1-in-3 engineering watch counterparts.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA485455

Entities

People

  • Gary W. Gray
  • James C Miller
  • Michel A. Paul
  • Thomas E. Nesthus

Organizations

  • Defence Research and Development Canada

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Classification
  • Command And Control
  • Data Analysis
  • Engineering
  • Evacuation
  • Frustration
  • Health Services
  • Iterations
  • Medical Evacuation
  • Medical Personnel
  • National Security
  • Naval Personnel
  • Security
  • Sleep Deprivation
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Submarines

Readers

  • Circadian Sleep-Wake Regulation and Chronobiology
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.