Sleep Research and Crew Fatigue
by Captain Renita Herrmann

During my time as a pilot with FedEx, I have had plenty of daytime layovers, and oftentimes bid them so as to maximize the layover, as I completed studies in Natural Health.

These courses led me to sleep research, which is fascinating. I'd like to share some of my observations with you, in the hopes that it may help you during your career.

In our jobs as pilots, many of us fly long hours, and if we don't fly internationally now, at some point in our careers we may find ourselves 'crossing the pond.' Oftentimes, our long hours force us to be creative with sleep times, whether it's the 25 hour layover in Narita, or the long-duty-time coast-to-coast with a noisy hotel, short turn, and back the next morning.

How well do you deal with it? You should know, it doesn't get better as you get older. The idea of watching your grandparents or elderly parents dozing in the afternoon in the rocker may be misleading; it isn't that they find it easy to sleep (on the contrary, it becomes harder), they often don't even realize they have been taking siestas day in and day out.

As we age, we still need the same amount of sleep, but its characteristics have changed. We don't cycle through the deep sleep that we did in younger years. We still need REM, characterized by rapid-eye movement, but the levels in between become less pronounced. The first cycle of REM starts about 90 minutes after you fall asleep, so don't plan on napping over that amount, since it is very hard to waken from this period. It will typically leave you foggy-headed and maybe a bit irritated. People that become sleep deprived over a period of days or weeks, sleeping less each night, can drop into REM rather rapidly, but it is conditioned by repetition, and cannot be willed.

Once you get to that nice cool hotel room and get ready for bed, there are some cues your body uses to sleep. By far, the most important one is exposure to light. Light, especially bright light, causes your melatonin levels to drop, the hormone your pineal gland uses to call the sandman. The average bright light may be less than 500 lux, whereas daylight is 100,000! But even dim lights have been shown to reduce melatonin levels to daytime averages. So avoid bright lights as you ready for bed, trying not to bump into furniture on your way to the bathroom to brush your teeth in the dark. Just kidding.

But be aware, that a single one-second flash of bright light (brighter than your average lamp) can reduce that melatonin to daytime levels in about one-half hour. A recent study showed that we also have skin receptors for light on the backs of our knees. Sounds like the X-Files to me, too.

But this raised another issue; do those eyeshades really help? One way to tell if you are sleep deprived is to sleep without an alarm on days off.