Posted on 04/20/2014 6:59:06 PM PDT by kingattax
GROTON, Conn. (AP) — With no sunlight to set day apart from night on a submarine, the U.S. Navy for decades has staggered sailors' working hours on schedules with little resemblance to life above the ocean's surface.
Research by a Navy laboratory in Groton is now leading to changes for the undersea fleet. Military scientists concluded submarine sailors, who traditionally begin a new workday every 18 hours, show less fatigue on a 24-hour schedule, and the Navy has endorsed the findings for any skippers who want to make the switch.
The first submarine to try the new schedule on a full deployment was the USS Scranton, led by Cmdr. Seth Burton, a cancer survivor. He said the illness he experienced as a junior officer helped convince him of the health benefits of keeping a sleep pattern in line with the body's natural rhythm.
"I know that there's lots of medical side effects to just not having a good, regular sleep pattern," said Burton, 41, of Huntsville, Ala.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bancroft SSBN 643 Charleston/Rota
Grenadier SS 525 Key West
Key West was the only duty where I cried when I left.
dogged watches are still used in the Navy. Topsiders normally dog the watch daily. This keeps the four hour watches rotating so the same men do not always have the midwatch. It also gets the 1st dog watch (16:00-18:00) off watch for the evening meal. 2nd dog watch eats before going on watch at 18:00. Snipes used to dog the watch once a week, generally on Friday if I remember correctly. For the evening meal, one of the off watch sections would come down an take the watch for half an hour or so, allowing the on watch section to grab chow and then back to the hole.
I worked pretty much the whole variety of watch patterns on the boat, mainly due to manpower issues. I much preferred the 6 on 12 off, 18 hour day. I credit those years of rotating sleep patterns for my ability to adapt quickly to sleep interruptions in my present day civillian life. i.e. when colicky babies didn’t understand that daddy worked second shift...
>>You must have meant “diurnal” cycles, I bet. “Duodenal” would refer to a segment of intestine.<<
Dang spel-chek
Thanks
Beautiful place, especially for an 18-19 year old guy.
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