Early Starts

[fireflybob]

What strategies do you have for dealing with early starts? i.e. when you are having to get up at circa 0415 for 5 successive mornings? How do you manage this working pattern with respect to sleep, rest and nutrition?

Thanks for any help.

[Right Way Up]

Fireflybob,
I guess it depends on your own physiological makeup. However I tend to go to bed at 9 before my 1st early. Any earlier and I'm not ready to go to sleep. Thereafter I tend to go to bed 8 hrs before getup but no earlier than 8.30. If I am feeling very tired I'll have a micronap no longer than 10 mins in the afternoon. (I need someone else around to wake me up.) Eating wise I eat early 5-6pm and never anything too heavy. I find being active after a flight is always a good thing (gym/brisk walk) and it saves you dozing off on the couch in front of the TV.

[5150]

I've been on earlies all this week and always find day 1 the hardest as your still into the 'staying up til midnight' mode you've just had from your days off, so only invariably get about 5-6 hrs sleep going into day 1.

By the end of day 1 I'm tired around 2030-2100, so hit the sack then. . . after that you're in the groove til whenever you finish, which for me is tomorrow lunchtime!!

Eats-wise I''ll have brekky on the aircraft, a sarnie for lunch and like Right Way Up mentions. . . dinner around 6pm.

Some people can't do earlies, but I have no dramas getting out of bed when the alarm goes off......sometimes about 0345!

[modern monkey]

Aint looking forward to do earlies if I ever have to, problem I have is that if I know I have to get up early in the morning, it stops me from getting to sleep, as I keep thinking to myself...., ive got to be up in 8hrs, ive got to be up in seven hours, 6hrs etc. Anybody else have the same problem?

Also, what are pilots views on using sleeping pills to knock themselves out? Reckon it could be a bit dodgy myself, as they affect ur alertness the next morning, but maybe its better to have a good nights sleep and feel slightly unalert for the first 2 hrs or so after u get up than to be completely knackered for the whole day?

[RYR-738-JOCKEY]

Eight hour sleep works a treat for me. Up at 4, then I'd go to bed at 8.

[fireflybob]

Thanks for the replies guys.

One strategy I have is three different alarm "systems" to wake me up - mobile phone, electric clock and battery operated clock. That way I am not worried about whether I will be waking up in the morning (I don't cater for triple failures!).

[aw8565]

I can relate very well to the clock-watching thing, happens all the time for me before first early. Best way is to do the triple alarm thing (or at least double) for piece of mind.

Does anyone find that sometimes despite only a relatively few hours sleep, they can wake up bright as beans and get through the whole day just fine, whereas sometimes after a mammoth sleep you feel terrible? How does that work?

My early starts are not that early (5.30am wakeup) but shifts are 12 hours and involve 2 days 2 nights 4 off. It IS a nice shift pattern but I often find I wake up about 4-5pm after last night feeling terrible, headache, not want to eat etc. Then about midnight .... you guessed it.

[ChocksAwayUK]

Originally Posted by modern monkey

Aint looking forward to do earlies if I ever have to, problem I have is that if I know I have to get up early in the morning, it stops me from getting to sleep, as I keep thinking to myself...., ive got to be up in 8hrs, ive got to be up in seven hours, 6hrs etc. Anybody else have the same problem?

Yup, this is my main problem with earlies. I'm naturally an early riser and usually have no problem getting up early....but when the pressure's on to sleep I find it impossible to. And like you say, I'm looking at the clock (though trying not to) and counting the hours down till ALARM. I've only been Airline flying for a few months but have done a couple of 4 sector days on less that an hours sleep so would love to find a solution for this. I hope it will get easier to sleep as I settle into the job more and it becomes more 'normal'. I actually don't feel too bad on these days but it certainly catches up on day 2 or 3 onwards (even though I've had more sleep on the preceding nights.)

[I Just Drive]

Im six years into regular earlies from 4am wake-up onwards and I am yet to find a way of transitioning smoothly. After a couple its not too bad because you are exhausted by 8pm and can go straight to sleep but the first one is a real killer. I regularly do a 12 hr day (4 sectors) from less than 2 hrs sleep and its absolutely dehabilitating. I am reluctant to use pills etc.. but if anyone had one that they swore by I would give it a go.

Plus my company rosters standbys in the middle so you can't get into a pattern. If they would only put them at the start or finish it would make loads more sense.

[modern monkey]

so anybody got any views on the use of sleeping pills then? Id certainly think that being a bit groggy first thing through a pill the night b4 is certainly a lesser evil than having had 1hrs kip.
Any pilots out there use them?