I retired from a cargo airline. Most of the fleets, including mine, were next-day air flights, which by definition had to operate over night. In general the schedules were week on/week off, and that in theory allowed time for recovery--until it was time for the next day/night schedule swap. It didn't matter how tired you were. You could be micro-sleeping on a 5-mile final to the runway. It didn't matter how well you ate or how religiously you exercised. You'd be lucky to get more than four or five hours of sleep each day in the hotel. By Thursday and Friday the sleep debt was so high that it could take 2-3 days to recover once you were home.
They always told us that with respect to motor skills, judgement, and attentiveness, flying tired was equivalent to flying drunk. As with drunkenness, tiredness is very hard to self-assess. And as with drunkenness, the effects are cumulative and make people stupider over time. So here I am: retired and at leisure but reduced to the cognitive bandwidth of a chicken.
My friend, some of your comments and questions could be mini-articles. I think you have plenty of cognitive bandwidth.
I am glad that everything turned out well. I know times have changed from a safety perspective, but this seems extremely irresponsible. But even now, when I am busy, the first thing that gets sacrificed is free time then sleep. I hear similar complaints from my friends in medical residency. Again, high stakes and good decisions need to be made. Should we really be having sleep-deprived workers?
I retired from a cargo airline. Most of the fleets, including mine, were next-day air flights, which by definition had to operate over night. In general the schedules were week on/week off, and that in theory allowed time for recovery--until it was time for the next day/night schedule swap. It didn't matter how tired you were. You could be micro-sleeping on a 5-mile final to the runway. It didn't matter how well you ate or how religiously you exercised. You'd be lucky to get more than four or five hours of sleep each day in the hotel. By Thursday and Friday the sleep debt was so high that it could take 2-3 days to recover once you were home.
They always told us that with respect to motor skills, judgement, and attentiveness, flying tired was equivalent to flying drunk. As with drunkenness, tiredness is very hard to self-assess. And as with drunkenness, the effects are cumulative and make people stupider over time. So here I am: retired and at leisure but reduced to the cognitive bandwidth of a chicken.
My friend, some of your comments and questions could be mini-articles. I think you have plenty of cognitive bandwidth.
I am glad that everything turned out well. I know times have changed from a safety perspective, but this seems extremely irresponsible. But even now, when I am busy, the first thing that gets sacrificed is free time then sleep. I hear similar complaints from my friends in medical residency. Again, high stakes and good decisions need to be made. Should we really be having sleep-deprived workers?
How is the book coming?
Love the info on the sleep study, David. I'm happy to be in the ~6.5-7hrs a night zone myself. :)
I was surprised by this! I thought the sweet spot would be closer to 8-9 hours.