What Did I Say? Sleep Deprivation From Work Affecting My Speaking

by Charlie
(Chicago, IL)

My name is Charlie, and I work as a third shift employee at a high paced company for logistics. My memory is put to the test every day as load per load I must update customers with a location and or problems of their shipments. I go through at least 200-500 calls per day and must remember exactly what is going on with every load during my shift. There is more to my job but for expedience purposes I will jump right into it.

At first I was a master at this and have been doing well. I could pick the information out of my brain quickly and respond easily. Over a year of time on third shift I have noticed that I sleep less and less daily and have become slightly irritable but mostly able to control it. Recently I have started zoning out; saying and doing things that don't make sense and I don't remember. I realized I was doing it when I was texting a friend and said "button" when I meant to say "bug," but had no clue that I made the mistake until I was asked what I was talking about. It's as if I was blacking out and only missing small portions of consciousness.

I have to be fast in my job and able to keep up with it's high paced platform which I have done very well for a long time. But lately, I have been missing things, updating the wrong customers with the wrong updates and basically zoning out. I will find myself automatically working but not really sure what I'm doing. It's difficult and I fear for my job-which may also be related because my sleep deprivation or debt may be causing paranoia! I'm unable to make logical verbal sentences sometimes and I often stutter when trying to find the right word which has never been a problem. I'm feeling crazy and I need to get back on track. I have to reread everything I type now 3 or four times to make sure its all going in the right place and to the right person. I'm exhausted and can't take it anymore. It's beginning to show more and more at work. I need help and fast. Im not sure I can last much longer on this road.

I fear it may get worse and fast.

My degradation seems to be gaining momentum and I don't want to end up sleep walking into traffic. All in all, I'm simply tired of being tired.