Why do submarines have 18 hour days

Some submariners may have to hot-bunk -- get into a bunk that has just been vacated by a shipmate starting his shift. A curtain provides privacy, and a small locker or drop-down shelf is all each submariner has for storage. In addition to many safeguards in place within and around the nuclear warheads and the reactor, submariners are monitored for radiation exposure or sickness.

Nuclear safety is taken very seriously -- public relations and recruitment would be considerably more difficult if submariners were ending their two-month deployment at sea without hair, teeth or white blood cells. There are currently no women on any United States nuclear submarine. The reason for this is twofold: There's no privacy whatsoever, and reconfiguring submarines to facilitate the cohabitation of both sexes would cost a good deal of money and take space away from other submarine functions.

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Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. Prev NEXT. This submariner probably isn't a puke -- he's got time to enjoy a cigarette break. They do a number of things during this time including drills, maintenance, and sleep. Since the 13th century, maritime workers around the world used a 4 hour on, 8 hours off schedule. Scientists are showing that hour workdays have a positive effect on submariners.

This video can help you understand the history of submarines. Understanding the history of submarines helps understand why keeping an hour schedule can make a difference over the duration of patrols.

We are referring to the way a day is experienced by a given group of people, rather than a day as a relation to the sun. Other countries use different variations of the watch schedule to accomplish the same thing as the U. Travis Nicks, who was on a fast-attack boat when his ship switched to eight-on, off watches. I did one deployment with six hour watches and one deployment with eight-hour watches.

And on the eight hour deployment, nobody fell asleep as the contact manager standing up. The officer of the deck wasn't leaning up against the scope with both eyes closed and being slapped by the junior officer of the deck to stay awake.

The impact was also immediately apparent for crew morale, he added. They need fewer bathroom breaks. They're dipping less tobacco. Everything gets better with eight-hour watches. In , the heads of the Surface Navy released a statement saying that their force should also make a priority out of sleep.