Fatigue factor's so crucial in EFL mix

A DOCTOR who regularly works nights once described the strange delirium that descends during a sleep-deprived graveyard shift.

Upon finishing work one morning, he drove straight from the hospital to a music shop in town and bought an £800 guitar. Days later, rested and refreshed, he was baffled as to what motivated such an expensive and unnecessary purchase. He couldn’t even remember the thought process.

This is why complex surgery is never performed at night, apart from in emergencies. You don’t want someone like him chopping you up.

Humans do not perform well when they’re knackered. They lose concentration. They make mistakes. They think about guitars when they should be sawing through your tibia.

Chernobyl, the Titanic, Exxon Valdez; so many of history’s most infamous disasters occurred in the middle of the night, when the people minding the shop were shattered.

Countless studies have demonstrated this correlation between fatigue and performance. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating all transport accidents in the USA, estimates that fatigue - both physical and mental - accounts for 15-20 per cent of all fatal incidents.