IMHO fatigue is every bit as dangerous and far and away more prevelant on the flight-deck than alcohol... though being a less sexy subject fails to get the deserved attention...
Heathrow Directors comments about managing ones life-style are for the most part utter nonsence... our bodies cannot be ordered by the ops dept to sleep at pre-programmed hours... or to get the type of sleep needed to refresh our minds sufficiently. Without resorting to drugs many people (myself inc) find it difficult or impossible to sleep during the day and after a series of 4/5 or 6 sector days with 11 hr turnarounds in foreign hotels most of us are operating below par... Try telling a hotel that you don't need the raucous racket of 3 hotel maids laughing and vacuuming the other side of your door at 9am and they'll think you're mad.
Eventually I chucked airline work simply because I couldn't take any more crap schedules. Many do not have the luxury of choice.
I believe that the US FLTs are less generous than the Europeans' ... but the Airline lobby is hugely powerful in the land where the buck rules all.