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In‐flight sleep, pilot fatigue and P sychomotor V igilance T ask performance on ultra‐long range versus long range flights
Author(s) -
Gander Philippa H.,
Signal T. Leigh,
Berg Margo J.,
Mulrine Hannah M.,
Jay Sarah M.,
Jim Mangie Captain
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of sleep research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.297
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1365-2869
pISSN - 0962-1105
DOI - 10.1111/jsr.12071
Subject(s) - crew , descent (aeronautics) , medicine , aeronautics , meteorology , physics , engineering
Summary This study evaluated whether pilot fatigue was greater on ultra‐long range ( ULR ) trips (flights >16 h on 10% of trips in a 90‐day period) than on long range ( LR ) trips. The within‐subjects design controlled for crew complement, pattern of in‐flight breaks, flight direction and departure time. Thirty male C aptains (mean age = 54.5 years) and 40 male F irst officers (mean age = 48.0 years) were monitored on commercial passenger flights ( B oeing 777 aircraft). Sleep was monitored (actigraphy, duty/sleep diaries) from 3 days before the first study trip to 3 days after the second study trip. K arolinska S leepiness S cale, S amn– P erelli fatigue ratings and a 5‐min P sychomotor V igilance T ask were completed before, during and after every flight. Total sleep in the 24 h before outbound flights and before inbound flights after 2‐day layovers was comparable for ULR and LR flights. All pilots slept on all flights. For each additional hour of flight time, they obtained an estimated additional 12.3 min of sleep. Estimated mean total sleep was longer on ULR flights (3 h 53 min) than LR flights (3 h 15 min; P ( F ) = 0.0004). Sleepiness ratings were lower and mean reaction speed was faster at the end of ULR flights. Findings suggest that additional in‐flight sleep mitigated fatigue effectively on longer flights. Further research is needed to clarify the contributions to fatigue of in‐flight sleep versus time awake at top of descent. The study design was limited to eastward outbound flights with two C aptains and two F irst O fficers. Caution must be exercised when extrapolating to different operations.