Officer wellness: fatigue, stress and the survival mindset

The shift ended at 07:00, but Reyes did not leave the station until almost 08:00. Vollmer's arrest meant extra reports, the highway mirror strike meant a collision report, and Mr. Brandt's daughter had called the station to say thank you, which Reyes was glad to hear but which took ten minutes. By the time she got into her own car, she had been awake for almost twenty-four hours. On the drive home, at a red light on Mill Street, she realized she could not remember the last two kilometres. When the light turned green, the driver behind her had to honk. She drove the rest of the way with the window down and the radio loud, and when she got home she sat in the driveway for a while before going in.

She told Malhotra about it the next night, half expecting him to laugh. He did not. He told her that in his second year he had fallen asleep for a second on the highway on the way home from a night shift and woken up with two wheels on the rumble strip. 'That scared me more than anything that's happened on a call,' he said. 'The job will tell you that you're tough. Your body doesn't care how tough you are.' This lesson is about the part of officer safety that is easiest to ignore: the effects of the work on the officer's own body and mind.

Shift work and fatigue

Police work runs around the clock, and many officers work rotating shifts, including nights. The human body has a circadian rhythm, an internal clock of roughly twenty-four hours that makes people most alert during the day and sleepiest in the early morning hours, typically between about two and six. Night shift work pushes against that clock. Officers on nights often sleep less and less well during the day, because of light, noise and family schedules, and the effects accumulate over a run of shifts. Overtime, court appearances on days off and long reports after busy shifts make it worse.

Fatigue affects many of the skills that officer safety depends on. Tired people react more slowly, notice less, make poorer decisions, have more trouble controlling emotions and are more likely to take risks. Studies of sleep deprivation have compared its effects to those of alcohol. Research published in the late 1990s and 2000 found that after about seventeen to nineteen hours without sleep, performance on some tasks was comparable to performance at a blood alcohol concentration of about 0.05, and that after about twenty-four hours awake, it was comparable to about 0.10, which is above the legal limit for driving in both countries. The comparison is approximate, and people vary, but it makes the point clearly: an officer who has been awake for twenty-four hours may be as impaired as a driver they would arrest.

Fatigue is also a driving risk, and driving is one of the largest sources of officer injury and death. Officers drive for hours during a shift and then drive home tired. Some services have policies limiting consecutive hours worked, requiring rest periods between shifts, or allowing officers who are too tired to drive to rest at the station or get a ride. Haddad tells the class that she would much rather pay for a taxi than attend another officer's funeral.

Managing fatigue

Fatigue cannot be eliminated in police work, but it can be managed. Sleep researchers and occupational health specialists recommend several strategies for shift workers.

• Protect sleep: use blackout curtains, earplugs or white noise; keep the bedroom cool; tell family members and friends when you are sleeping.
• Plan naps: a short nap before a night shift can improve alertness; some services allow brief rest breaks during long shifts.
• Use caffeine wisely: caffeine helps alertness but should be avoided in the last few hours before sleep.
• Eat and drink well: regular, balanced meals and water help more than sugary snacks and energy drinks.
• Watch the drive home: if you are drowsy, do not drive; rest first, or get a ride.
• Speak up: tell a supervisor when fatigue is affecting your work, and support colleagues who do.

Reyes asked Malhotra what he does now. He told her that before a run of nights he sleeps in the afternoon, eats a real meal before the shift, brings food and water, avoids coffee after about three in the morning, and keeps a pillow in his locker for days when reports run long. He also checks on newer officers at the end of busy shifts. 'If you look like you're going to fall asleep in the parking lot, I'm going to ask you,' he told her. 'And you're going to answer honestly.'

# Counting sleep debt over a run of night shifts (hours; target 7.5 per day)
target = 7.5
slept = [7.0, 5.5, 5.0, 6.0]   # sleep before each of four night shifts
debt = 0.0
for day, hours in enumerate(slept, start=1):
    debt += target - hours
    print(f"night {day}: slept {hours} h, running sleep debt {debt:.1f} h")

night 1: slept 7.0 h, running sleep debt 0.5 h
night 2: slept 5.5 h, running sleep debt 2.5 h
night 3: slept 5.0 h, running sleep debt 5.0 h
night 4: slept 6.0 h, running sleep debt 6.5 h

The example shows how sleep debt grows over a run of night shifts even when each day's shortfall seems modest. By the fourth night, the officer in the example is six hours short of the sleep they need, which is close to a full night's sleep. Researchers have found that people are poor judges of their own fatigue; they tend to feel more alert than their performance shows. That is one reason objective limits on hours worked, and honest conversations between colleagues, are so important.

Stress and the body

Police work involves both acute stress, from critical incidents such as violent calls, fatal collisions and the deaths of children, and chronic stress, from shift work, workload, organizational pressures, public criticism and the steady accumulation of difficult calls. Stress affects the body. Over time, high stress is associated with sleep problems, high blood pressure, heart disease, digestive problems and weight gain. Police officers in several studies have shown higher rates of some of these conditions than the general population. Physical fitness, good nutrition and regular medical checkups are therefore part of a long, healthy career.

Stress also affects the mind. A large 2018 survey of Canadian public safety personnel, including police, found that about 44 in 100 respondents screened positive for symptoms consistent with at least one mental disorder, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety. In 2016, Ontario created a presumption under its workers' compensation law that post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosed in first responders, including police officers, is work-related, which makes it easier for them to receive benefits and treatment. Desjardins tells the class that these numbers are not a reason to fear the job. They are a reason to take mental health as seriously as physical safety.

Recognizing stress and getting help

Officers often find it hard to admit that they are struggling. The culture of policing has long valued toughness and self-reliance, and some officers worry that seeking help will hurt their careers or lead to their firearm being taken away. Many services are working to change this culture, and supervisors like Haddad play a large part. Signs that an officer may be struggling include changes in sleep, irritability, withdrawal from family and friends, increased drinking, loss of interest in things they used to enjoy, cynicism, intrusive memories of calls, and difficulty concentrating. These signs can appear in oneself or in a colleague.

Help is available in several forms. Most services have an employee and family assistance program offering confidential counselling. Many have peer support teams, made up of trained officers who can listen and connect colleagues to professional help. Some offer critical incident debriefing or check-ins after traumatic calls, though research on the best form and timing of such sessions is mixed, and many programs now focus on voluntary support and follow-up rather than mandatory group debriefs. Chaplains, family doctors, psychologists and community mental health services are also options. In Canada, anyone in crisis can call or text 9-8-8, the Suicide Crisis Helpline. Haddad tells the students that she has used her service's assistance program twice in her career, and that it made her a better sergeant.

The survival mindset

Many officer-safety programs talk about a survival mindset: the determination to keep going, to stay focused and to protect oneself and others under extreme stress. Desjardins thinks the idea is useful, but he wants the students to understand it properly. A healthy survival mindset is not paranoia, aggression or a belief that every person is an enemy. It is a combination of preparation, confidence in one's training, awareness, and the will to keep problem-solving when things go wrong. It includes the ability to recover after a stressful event and to keep doing the work for a whole career.

He contrasts this with a mindset that some officers develop over time: hypervigilance that never switches off, cynicism about the public, and an us-versus-them view of the community. That mindset may feel protective, but it erodes relationships with the public, makes encounters more confrontational and damages officers' own health and families. Researchers have described how chronic hypervigilance can contribute to exhaustion and to difficulty relaxing at home. 'A good officer can switch on at work and switch off at home,' Desjardins says. 'If you can't switch off, that's not toughness. That's a sign you need some support.'

Resilience is the ability to adapt to and recover from stress. It is not a fixed trait; it can be built. Strategies that support resilience include regular exercise, good sleep, strong relationships with family and friends outside policing, interests outside the job, realistic optimism, a sense of purpose, and the willingness to talk about difficult experiences. Some services teach specific techniques, such as controlled breathing, which was covered in an earlier lesson, and mental rehearsal of difficult situations.

Families and life outside the job

Shift work and stress also affect officers' families. Partners and children may see little of the officer during runs of nights, may worry about their safety, and may notice changes in mood that the officer does not. Some services offer family orientation sessions for new officers, explaining the realities of shift work and the support available. Malhotra told Reyes that one of the most protective things in his life was a weekly dinner with friends who had nothing to do with policing. 'They don't care about my calls,' he said. 'They care about whether I've seen the new movie. That reminds me there's a world out there that isn't the job.' Desjardins adds that officers who keep up hobbies, friendships and family routines outside policing tend to cope better with stress and have longer, healthier careers.