Explore Sleep

Sleep is vital. We can’t live without it. For railroaders, good sleep improves safety and health, both on and off the job. Learn what helps or harms the quality and quantity of your sleep. Discover your daily patterns of alertness and sleepiness. Find out if it’s time to talk to your healthcare provider about your sleep.

If you have a railroader in your life, this information is for you, too. Knowing more about sleep benefits everyone.

Body Clock

Everyone has a clock in their brain that organizes daily life. This clock, a pinhead-sized cluster of nerve cells, makes you feel more alert or more sleepy at some times of day than at others.

How Your Body Interacts With Your Sleep Drive

These two seemingly opposed internal processes—the body clock and the sleep drive—work together to m...

When Your Body Clock Resets

Your body clock adjusts to schedule changes. This process moves slowly, however. After switching between day work and ni...

Be a Clock Watcher

Learn to tell time on your body clock. Then use body time to organize your day....

Avoid The Danger Zone

Savvy railroaders have devised tactics to cope with their often unpredictable hours. They have figur...

Time of Your Life

Your body clock also directs manual dexterity, ups and down in reaction time, and the the rise and f...

Your Daily Ups and Downs

You will feel better and function better if you can work and sleep at times of day the body naturall...

How Sleep Works

Sleep needs vary from person to person. How much sleep do you need?

Why Better Sleep = Better Health

People who frequently short-change themselves on sleep forget how great it feels to be well-rested. They get used to fee...

Do You Get Enough Sleep?

Daniel Cohen, MD, MMSc, formerly of Harvard, explains how we can recharge our internal battery to avoid sleep debt. He a...

What Makes You Fall Asleep?

Most adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep per day, ideally at night, to feel optimally a...

How much sleep do you need?

Most adults need between seven to nine hours of sleep per day, ideally at night, to feel optimally a...

Sleep Myths Debunked

People who frequently short-change themselves on sleep forget how great it feels to be well-rested. They get used to fee...

Do You Carry a Sleep Debt?

People who get less sleep than they need build up a sleep debt. An eight-hour sleeper who sleeps onl...

Why sleep matters

Robert Stickgold, PhD, of Harvard, tells how sleep helps you learn facts and remember them....

Working the Rails, Balancing Family

If you work an on-call, unpredictable schedule, you frequently go to bed and get up at different times. Even if you work...

Working the Rails

If you work an on-call, unpredictable schedule, you frequently go to bed and get up at different times. Even if you work...

Your Sleep Toolkit

Chart your sleep, check your alertness, and take advantage of the Anonymous Sleep Disorders Screening Tool.

Check Your Risk for Sleep Disorders Now

People who get less sleep than they need build up a sleep debt. An eight-hour sleeper who sleeps onl...

Check Your Risk for Sleep Disorders Now

People who get less sleep than they need build up a sleep debt. An eight-hour sleeper who sleeps onl...

Test Your Reaction Time

The two self-tests below can help you identify problems to discuss with your doctor....

Should I Track My Sleep?

Sleep tracking devices can be simply used to increase personal awareness of sleep and can be an imp...

Where Are You on the Sleepiness Scales?

The two self-tests below can help you identify problems to discuss with your doctor....