(March 2011) AFTER MY JANUARY ARTICLE, “Deadly Fatigue,” came out, I received a message from Mark Schwartz, a retired airline pilot and Gold Seal instructor, saying that any article relating to fatigue would not be complete unless it discussed the effects that circadian rhythm has on one’s abilities to perform flight duties. I responded that I was working on just such an article, and Mark shared some of the challenges an airline pilot faces in dealing with changing time zones and difficult work schedules.
Mark said that in his experience probably the worst disruption for flight crews within the United States involved East Coast-based crews assigned an afternoon or evening departure to the West Coast. By the time they had completed the flight across the country and perhaps one or two more West Coast legs, it would be well after midnight local time, meaning it was after 3 a.m. back home on the East Coast.
Assuming it was 2 a.m. by the time they had made it to the hotel, had something to eat and gotten ready for bed, they would need to sleep until 10 a.m. to get the recommended eight hours of sleep. It is difficult to sleep soundly during normal waking hours, and by about 7 a.m. they would begin to hear the sounds of doors slamming and people talking in the hall as they left for breakfast or to check out. This would be followed by the noise of the service staff starting to clean the vacated rooms. The net result would be less than restful sleep.
