Fatigue on pilots hw

The effects of fatigue on fixed wing pilots

The Effects of Fatigue on Fixed Wing Pilots

We hear about people being tired all the time from those who are around us, and sometimes we wonder why. Many people nowadays use the terms ‘weakness’ and ‘fatigue’ in describing their mood or how they feel, but actually both of these two words have a different meaning. Weakness describes how low the strength is in someone's whole body or a certain body part and its need for effort in moving it. While fatigue is all about the tired feeling, exhaustion, and lack of energy a person suffers from [1].

Fatigue can be shown as mental, physical, and subjective states [2]. As an illustration, fatigue in mental states might cause the person to be inattentive, indecisive, and with reduced mental capacity. But in physical states, fatigue is shown in physiological degradation and physical exhaustion in a person's body. Also, tiredness, drowsiness, and sleepiness are subjective states of fatigue.

As a matter of fact, an individual can suffer from fatigue despite how much sleep he gets in a day because fatigue is also connected to one’s duties at his workplace. Workers who work for long hours during the day with minimal breaks are more likely to get fatigued than those who have regular breaks. Several workplace factors have an impact on fatigue, such as the timing of tasks and activities, availability of resources, and the workplace environment. In addition to these factors, lack of sleep, work and mental stress, and long periods of anxiety are also considered factors of fatigue.

However, lack of attention, memory lapses, slower reactions, difficulty in processing information, and many more symptoms are results of fatigue [3]. Likewise, more signs and symptoms of fatigue are depression, headaches, loss of appetite, lack of motivation, and irritability.

As a student pilot, I and my colleagues should definitely try our best to avoid getting fatigued, as pilots must have the concentration and attention needed while flying. In the outside life, we need to avoid fatigue due to its effects on the person's health as it is caused by lack of sleep, as mentioned earlier, unhealthy eating habits, lack of physical activity, and some medications [4].

While at work, pilots and student pilots really have to be careful and avoid fatigue as it definitely affects their work. Flying is not something easy to do. It needs focus, attention to detail, fast reactions and responses, and a clear mind. With fatigue, pilots tend to face difficulties in communication, productivity or performance, alertness, reaction time, and ability to handle stress on the job [2]. As a result of these impacts, disastrous incidents might happen while flying.

References:

[1] Brell JM, Jones LW. Fatigue. In Niederhuber JE, Armitage JO, Kastan MB, Doroshow JH, Tepper JE, eds. Abeloff’s Clinical Oncology. 6th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:676- 681.

[2] Government of Canada, C. C. for O. H. and S. (2022, March 8). Fatigue: Osh answers. Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/fatigue.html

[3] Leonard A. Jason; Meredyth Evans; Molly Brown; Nicole Porter (2010). What is Fatigue? Pathological and Nonpathological Fatigue., 2(5), 327–331. doi: 10.1016/j.pmrj.2010.03.028

[4] Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2020, December 2). Fatigue causes. Mayo Clinic. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/fatigue/basics/causes/sym-20050894#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20time%20fatigue,conditions%20that%20require%20medical%20treatment.