Mungop: You are quite right, and it is very possible to fall asleep while hand flying an airplane.
To leftseatview: if your hand flying would keep passengers awake, you better turn your autopilot off more often and practice hand flying.
I can imagine the new breed of regional pilot. Pay your money upfront and learn to fly, by 500 or 600 total hours you get hired at a regional airline. And they encourage you to use the autopilot.
So, for every hour you log, maybe 5 minutes is hand flying. And you never get good at it.
Mungop is quite right again, fatigue is not getting enough attention...and it will get some attention with the next fatigue crash.