Crew Schedules, Sleep Deprivation, and Aviation Performance
Abstract
Recent events have highlighted the importance of pilot fatigue in aviation operations. Because of demanding flight schedules, crew members often suffer disrupted sleep and desynchronized circadian rhythms, the combination of which threatens alertness and performance. Unfortunately, market requirements for transcontinental and transoceanic routes, as well as for nighttime departures and early-morning arrivals, continue to pose challenges to human vigilance in flight. However, regulatory attention to the physiological causes of fatigue, new techniques for schedule optimization, advanced sleep-monitoring technology, and behavioral strategies to counter fatigue will go a long way toward managing fatigue-related risks in operational contexts.
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Sleep-deprived pilots display degradations in psychomotor control, problem solving, and attention to flight instruments.
“Sleep-deprived pilots display degradations in psychomotor control, problem solving, and attention to flight instruments.”
From Effects of total sleep deprivation on performance in a manual spacecraft docking task (2024) · cites this paper as [18]
Short involuntary lapses into sleep have been the cause of aviation accidents.
“Moreover, short involuntary lapses into sleep have been the cause of aviation accidents18.”
From Effects of total sleep deprivation on performance in a manual spacecraft docking task (2024) · cites this paper as [18]
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Effects of total sleep deprivation on performance in a manual spacecraft docking task
Piechowski, S., Kalkoffen, L. J., Benderoth, S., Wolf, O. T., Rittweger, J., Aeschbach, D., & Mühl, C. (2024) · npj Microgravity · doi:10.1038/s41526-024-00361-z · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Caldwell, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Fatigue Science, Honolulu, HI
- Corresponding author
- Caldwell, John A.
- ORCID
- Caldwell, John A.
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-03-20
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 85-89
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W2167588127
- Cited by
- 85
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Human-Automation Interaction and Safety
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Keywords
- pilot fatigue, sleep deprivation, circadian rhythm disruption, alertness, sleep monitoring, fatigue countermeasures, scheduling optimization, fatigue risk management
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