David CookIt wasn't late, and he'd only had a beer or two. Some of us were sitting around talking, and slowly, he just dozed off.
It was a quick nap, yet an obvious one: It takes a very tired man to fall asleep during a party.
And this city is full of very tired men.
"Sorry," he said, waking up a few minutes later.
It was understandable. My friend works what's called an alternate shift, a category of labor that includes all sorts of non-Circadian schedules. The night shift. One week of working days, followed by a week of nights. The gruel of what's called "clopening" -- staying late to close a restaurant or fast food joint, then returning early the next morning to open.
This is not 9-to-5 labor.
In the last 20 years, we have become a service industry town, which may also mean we have become a sleep-deprived town. (The Scenic City is the Service City is the Sleepy City.)
Leisure and hospitality jobs jumped from 16,000 in the early '90s to nearly 26,000 today. There are twice as many bartenders in Chattanooga today as in 2000. Chattanooga exceeds the national average for waiters, waitresses, maids and housekeepers.
"Restaurant cooks have almost doubled," said Dr. Ken Chilton, former head of the Ochs Center and current Tennessee State University professor who provided the research on these trends.
Such a dramatic shift is also a matter of public health. Service industry workers are the same folks likely to work alternate shift schedules.
"Employees are literally losing sleep as restaurants, retailers and many other businesses shrink the intervals between shifts and rely on smaller, leaner staffs to shave costs," writes Steven Greenhouse in The New York Times.
At VW, workers often work a rotating shift -- a week of working days followed by a week of working nights. Then, back to days. Then, back to nights.
"It's miserable," one employee told me.
Sleep deprivation costs the American economy some $60 billion a year in lost productivity. Dozy driving is often as dangerous as drunken driving. Sleep deprivation and insomnia are synonymous with higher health care costs.
(Due to absurd and antiquated high school start times, we should also begin to assume every Hamilton County high school student is chronically sleep deprived.)
The lack of sleep affects personal happiness, family life and psychological well-being, which are also the forces driving the tourism and service industries. Chattanooga employees are losing their sleep in order to give other families a good time.
Not surprisingly, this affects minorities more, at least in our city. Those with college degrees are less likely to work shift labor. In far too many local neighborhoods of color, college degrees are scarce.
In Europe, many countries require employers to provide at least 11 consecutive hours of rest within every 24- hour shift. Give us our daily rest.
"In the United States, no such national or state labor law or regulation governs the intervals between shifts," Greenhouse writes.
Intense sleep deprivation is a form of torture used by the American military against prisoners. Minor yet chronic sleep deprivation is used by American capitalism against workers.
We have normalized damaging forms of labor that make us exhausted and tired. This is not healthy. It is not holy.
Yes, work is good for the mind, body and soul.
But so is a party.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.