I haven't seen it discussed yet so will introduce the notion of Controlled Rest on the Flight Deck. It's in the Canadian Aviation Regulations as a legitimate technique to address fatigue. It isn't intended to replace Flight Time and Duty Day regulations although Canada's regulations were ATAC-driven at the time - a Part VII (airline, commercial ops) 3-pilot crew with an "SAE specified" bunk can remain on duty legally, for 23 hours, the "3" being "unforseen circumstances" for which there has yet to be a definition in the CARS.
The basic notion of controlled rest is to recognize that fatigue does not know about rules, and accepts that rest periods may be less than optimum from a human factors point of view.
There are obviously conditions and SOPs which govern Controlled Rest such as the presence either of someone from the cabin in a two-pilot operation or a means of frequent checking if a single crew member is all the cabin has, (small ops).
The industry has used 'controlled rest' unofficially for decades but it's now recognized legally in Canada. Falling asleep in the cockpit happens far more frequently than anyone with the regulator or in any airline management position will acknowledge or even know about. I've used controlled rest techniques many times for my crew on Vancouver-Sydney (via Honolulu with a day's stop) and other routes typically Hong Kong, Tokyo - Vancouver/Toronto. "Pushing back the seat" and taking twenty minutes to 'check out the overhead panel', (maximum fourty minutes or so, so that REM sleep is not entered with it's resulting grogginess), works extremely well in my experience but is not without it's controversies. The F/A's sometimes resent the monitoring duties, saying "they dont' get any break, why should we?", etc but that ignorance aside 99% of the time it works well.
Pilots' unions or representative groups where there are no unions, must trade negotiating dollars for working conditions that truly ought to be supported by appropriate regulations but that battle is as old as our oldest airlines - 1929, on!
Anyway, for what it's worth...anyone else use the technique? Is it effective for you? Remember, it isn't a substitute for the larger human factors issues and required regulatory support.
PJ2