Ancient Observer
You make a good point about the type of research. Having started out flying military transports I have always taken a bleary-eyed but avid lay interest in this field and have tried to do as much germane reading as possible. That of course does not make me anything close to a research expert but it did allow me to draw perhaps one conclusion and that concerning rotating shift schedules.
After having poured over the likes of Dr. Rosekind's publications (when he was still at Nasa-Ames and which I found rather diconnected from how a true line sweaty/smelly feels after a month of tough rosters) and his sawing on about Zeitgebers and how the sun cures all ills (exageration intended on my part), I realized that so many of these studies were looking at limited time frames--a few flights at a time.
A couple of years ago however, I ran across a study that was performed in one of the American plants of a Japanese automaker--say it was Toyota or Honda/Acura. The management, to foster morale, gave the workers the option of how they would like to arrange their schedules. In conjunction with a worker's council they adopted the rotating schedule that brought workers through the 24 hour cycle. In other words, first week or two one worked 7:30 to 4:30. Then for two weeks from 4:30 until midnight or so and then the third rotation from late at night until early morning.
Over a year the researchers found markedly higher incidences of sick leave, mood swings and changes, and all the rest. Of course no matter what kind of schedule personnel will still fall ill, have domestic troubles etc., but so marked was the uptick in these mental health areas that the workers, surprised at what had happened with them, then voted in the council to go back to set schedules for 6 months before they rotated (if at all). So although morale was high and the company made the workers feel needed, a rotating schedule basicall (no pun intended) cleaned their clocks.
What the workers thought was a great deal actually knocked the stuffing out of them. Surprisingly, it was one of the first (although I soon discovered that there were a couple of others) studies that I had read that took a look at the rotating shift scenario. That, in aviation seems to be one of the real problems and it was what the physician that I mentioned in my writing was so keenly focused on.
I wish that I could speak with him again, as he was well versed in this and thus his reference to Bhopal, Three Mile Island, and the other shift work incidents.
What I really wish I could speak with him about however, is if there has been any advancement in what he thought could very quickly measure tiredness and fatigue--that of using light to measure how quickly the pupil dialates. He thought it was the "killer app" for measuring attentiveness, much in the same way that LEOs use it for drunk driving suspicion. Ntocie the phrase "attentiveness." For that is really the key and is the bottom line IMHO whether one has been ground to dust working in the mines 20 days in a row, or if simply you missed a night of sleep whilst working and your brain is trying to grab some micro sleep.
Can you imagine the apopletic response however, from the ATA if this were actually tried out and the tiredness that was discovered sloshing around in the world's air transport industry? It would take legions of ATA spokesmen and women to fight a pitched battle against medical reality--something perhaps akin to the tobacco industry denying that smoking was bad for you.
One thing that I found interesting in the reading and discussion with physicians however, was that they often tended (although this is not true across the board) to equate tiredness with fatigue. If I have been on vacation for 6 months but have to get up at 3 a.m. to drive to the airport and operate a flight I very well might be tired. Same if I have been on vacation for 6 months and now am flying the red-eye but have been awake for the last 24 hours. As one researcher told me, "someone can fall asleep at the wheel of a car" by being tired and not fatigued. In this case, the number of hours since the last QUALITY sleep opporunity outweighs what one was doing for the past two weeks... Micro sleep and other BWP activity can come about with or without weeks of previous fatigue accretion.
From the land of Nod...
Last edited by Uncle Fred; 16th Jun 2009 at 15:58.