The Vancouver Canucks professional hockey team were concerned their demanding schedule was hurting their performance on the ice. Their solution — start measuring their players sleeping performance.
(Photo Credit: Matt Boulton/Flickr)
The Canucks teamed up with the Vancouver-based company Fatigue Science, which has created a wristband that scientifically measures quantify sleep, fatigue and human performance.
Team management used the data from the wristbands, called Readiband, to identify players that weren’t sleeping properly and designed training and travel schedules to optimize peak player performance at game time. The data retrieved from the wristbands helped the Canucks win games, according to the Fatigue Science website.
Readiband, which looks similar to a watch, works by using technology first developed by the United State Military. It uses biomathematical fatigue model now known as SAFTE (Sleep, Activity, Fatigue, Task, Effectiveness) that predicts cognitive effectiveness based on sleep quantity, sleep quality and the time of day sleep is obtained, according to a Forbes report.
Not just in professional hockey, but employers in a number of professions have turned to measuring fatigue levels with Readiband in an effort to get the most out of their employees and to keep them safe.
Rio Tinto put the wristbands on miners to make sure they aren’t too fatigued to work with potentially dangerous equipment. The FAA has used the bands to measure fatigue in flight attendants and Harvard Medical School used Readibands for a study to see if there was a connection between fatigue and medical error.
If you want a Readiband to see how effective you’re sleeping, you won’t have to wait long. They are expected to be released to consumers in the coming months.
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