Wake gives maritime operators an independent, confidential comparison of measured crew sleep and recovery, watch schedules, and official work/rest records. So you can act before it becomes a safety event, an audit finding, or an operational problem.
Designed for fleet managers, marine superintendents, DPA/ISM teams, safety managers, and operators responsible for crew scheduling and fatigue risk.
Book a 20-minute scoping call See how the audit worksYour work/rest records may be compliant on paper while the crew is still accumulating fatigue. Self-reported records show scheduled rest. They cannot show whether scheduled rest resulted in sleep and recovery. A confidential, time-limited measurement exercise gives your safety team the missing half of the picture.
In a 2025 Cardiff University study of over 1,200 cargo seafarers, researchers found work/rest hour records are often falsified to conceal overwork, and the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has concluded that rest-hour records on board many vessels "are not completed accurately."
Sources: gCaptain, Cardiff SIRC research report (PDF)
More than a third of cargo seafarers surveyed in that same study reported not getting enough sleep in the previous 48 hours, driven by long hours, irregular patterns, port duties, and vessel motion. Even where the Maritime Labour Convention is followed, seafarers can still be left without enough rest.
Source: The Maritime Executive
Operators don't buy wearable data. They buy answers.
You receive the following working outputs. All findings remain your confidential property.
Where fatigue risk concentrates, broken down by role, watch, and rotation phase.
Measured sleep and recovery set against the vessel's official work/rest records, with the gap quantified. The audit examines this gap as an analytical exercise; it does not determine legal compliance by itself.
How fatigue risk accumulates across a typical rotation, and where the curve bends.
Practical scheduling, watchkeeping, and rest-environment changes, with rationale and implementation considerations.
What to measure again after changes are made, so you can evaluate whether they worked.
Each consenting participant receives a personal summary of their own data. This goes to the participant, never to management.
The deliverables answer your scheduling questions. The process itself does three more things.
A documented, methodical measurement program shows fatigue risk was taken seriously. Useful material for incident investigations, vetting questionnaires, and conversations with your P&I club or insurer.
Voluntary participation, private personal summaries for each participant, and an explicit no-discipline rule show crews the company invests in their welfare. In a seafarer shortage, that matters.
Knowing which roles and rotation phases carry the risk means changes can be surgical: adjust the watch system where the data points, instead of disrupting the whole operation.
A fixed-scope engagement: a short onboarding period, then a 4 to 5 week measurement window covering a full crew rotation where possible. Full methodology is shared with you before you sign anything.
We agree on the vessel, watch pattern, participant group, privacy controls, and success criteria before the engagement begins, so everyone knows what the audit will and won't answer.
About 10 to 20 volunteer crew wear a standardized, screenless sleep/recovery band for 4 to 6 weeks, day and night, in non-hazardous areas. Wearable data is read alongside watch schedules, operational context, and official work/rest records.
We look for patterns by role, watch, rotation phase, sleep opportunity, and recovery, and compare measured sleep and recovery against recorded rest. Reporting to you is aggregate; individual results are never used for discipline or performance review.
You receive a risk heatmap, a measured-versus-recorded comparison, and prioritized recommendations. We present the findings to your safety team and agree on a re-measurement plan to check whether the changes helped.
In 20 minutes, we'll determine whether a fatigue audit is suitable for your vessel, what it would measure, and what information would be required. No commitment and no preparation required.
Book the callA fatigue audit examines the gap between recorded rest and measured sleep and recovery. It is designed so you can ask the question safely.
Participation requires written informed consent, and any crew member can withdraw at any time without consequence. Data gaps from opt-outs are disclosed honestly, never filled in.
You receive anonymized, aggregate reporting only. Individual-level data is never shared with the operator, and results are contractually barred from use in discipline, performance review, or employment decisions.
All reports are your confidential property. Nothing is disclosed to third parties without your written consent, and the engagement can be commissioned through your legal counsel as part of a safety review.
Encrypted storage, retained for 12 months after the final report, then deleted. No audio, location tracking, or message content is collected. Participants can request a copy of their own data and deletion at any time.
Questions about fit, privacy controls, or what an engagement requires? A 20-minute scoping call settles all of it.
Book the callClear limits are part of the method, not fine print.
The bands are consumer-grade wearable sensors, not medical devices. Sleep staging and recovery figures are estimates, useful for trends rather than clinical-grade measurements.
Findings describe risk trends across the measurement period. They are not real-time impairment readings and must not be used as fitness-for-duty decisions.
The audit does not replace your safety-management system, provide legal advice, or certify the vessel's overall safety. It is one measurement exercise feeding into the systems you already run.
The audit doesn't create the regulatory interest in fatigue. It gives operators a way to respond to it.
The IMO's Guidelines on Fatigue (MSC.1/Circ.1598) set out company-level responsibility for managing fatigue risk, and the ISM Code requires companies to proactively identify safety risks. A company that measures, finds a gap, and remediates it holds a stronger position than one that never looked.
Cardiff University's 2025 study found that even where the Maritime Labour Convention is followed, seafarers can still be left without enough rest. Recorded compliance and actual recovery are two different things, and only one of them is currently being measured.
Source: The Maritime Executive
No. The devices are consumer-grade wearables, not medical devices. Sleep and recovery figures are estimates used for operational trend analysis, not clinical diagnosis and not a fitness-for-duty determination.
One standardized, screenless sleep/recovery band for every participant, so measurements are comparable. It's lightweight, has an 8-day battery, and is worn day and night in non-hazardous areas. Bands are factory-reset between engagements.
That's fine. Participation is voluntary, with written consent and the right to withdraw at any time. Missing data is disclosed honestly in the analysis; nothing is interpolated or filled in.
No. The operator receives aggregate reports only, by role, watch, or rotation phase. Individual summaries go to the participants themselves. Using results for discipline or performance review is contractually prohibited.
Encrypted, retained for 12 months after the final report, then deleted. No audio, location data, or message content is collected. Participants can request a copy of their own data and deletion at any time.
The watch schedule and roster, official MLC work/rest hour records, a crew liaison, and time for a short onboarding briefing. No hardware purchase or software installation is required.
It's designed for a normal operating cycle. The measurement window covers a full crew rotation where possible, so findings reflect real working conditions.
The audit doesn't replace your records; it measures against them. The comparison between measured sleep and recovery and recorded rest is the core of the measured-versus-recorded rest gap report.
In 20 minutes, we'll determine whether a fatigue audit is suitable for your vessel, what it would measure, and what information would be required. No commitment and no preparation required.
Wake is accepting a small number of founding audit engagements for 2026-2027. Founding clients work directly with the principal, and their operational questions help shape the methodology.
Book the call