D64

Lack of sleep is my main problem. Can you change anything about that?

Not about the quantity. About what you do with what is left, yes. Exhaustion attacks your judgement first, and it does so before you notice it has gone. That is why we work with decisions taken in advance: fixed if-then rules for reefing, changing course, turning back, and calling for help. At three in the morning you no longer decide, you execute. In the workbook that is the action plan, and for you it is not one module among others but the heart of the matter.

What we do not do is sleep training. How you break your sleep into short blocks and adapt your rhythm to the passage is something you learn from people who research and teach exactly that. We are the part of the team that makes sure you get the most out of the waking remainder.

Alongside that, the watch routine as a ritual rather than a matter of willpower, and an honest reckoning with what sleep deprivation does beyond a certain point: irritability, tunnel vision, disturbances of perception. Anyone who knows it is coming is less alarmed by it, and does not make a panic decision out of it.

Single-handed offshore sailors

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