Should Pilots Take Naps After Flying Low Altitude Planes?

[tgt]

Is it good for a period of 1-2 hours? Explain.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I voted for 'depends on when'. For instance, when you are driving an expensive car.

 

[tgt]

I voted for 'depends on when'. For instance, when you are driving an expensive car.

okay. Let's use common sense.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

okay. Let's use common sense.

Are you suggesting that I should not take a nap when driving an expensive car?

 

[jim mcnamara]

I think js's answer is relevant to the question. If you actually have a biology question try that forum. This is General Discussion, also known as GD

 

[BobG]

Yes. That's what they invented TV's for, isn't it?

Two things knock me out almost immediately: TV's and riding an airplane (on an airplane, the oxygen level is knocked down a little making it real easy to fall asleep).

 

[lisab]

Yes. That's what they invented TV's for, isn't it?

Two things knock me out almost immediately: TV's and riding an airplane (on an airplane, the oxygen level is knocked down a little making it real easy to fall asleep).

Apparently, the oxygen level is low in your TV room, too .

I love naps! At work, I'm lucky to have an actual four-walled office with a door - not a cubicle. So after I eat lunch I close the door, put my feet up and snooze for about 10 minutes. Perfect!

 

[Andre]

I think js's answer is relevant to the question. If you actually have a biology question try that forum. This is General Discussion, also known as GD

Oh, I thought it was Gagging Diversion.

Anyway about naps, there is some controversy I believe. Google for catnaps, power-naps and caffeine naps.

 

[Moonbear]

I voted that it depends on when. If you have an hour left of work to get done, and take an hour long nap, then still have to get the hour's worth of work done, plus can't fall asleep afterward because you're all "refreshed" from the nap, it's not worth it. If you have 6 hours of work left, and an hour long nap will refresh you enough to get it done in 6 hours instead of 10 or 12, then yeah, a nap is a good thing.

 

[hypatia]

I love naps, but only rest for 20 to 30 minutes. Any longer then that I wake up feeling hazey.

 

[Borek]

catnaps, power-naps and caffeine naps.

And kidnaps.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I said "depends on when" because 1 - 2 hours is a lot of time to just sleep away. There's a lot more you could be doing. So what I do is take naps during class.

 

[BobG]

I said "depends on when" because 1 - 2 hours is a lot of time to just sleep away. There's a lot more you could be doing. So what I do is take naps during class.

A 2 hour nap in class is a lot of time, too. You could fall asleep in the middle of American History and wake up with a whole different set of people in the classroom - speaking French, no less!

 

[jim mcnamara]

I said "depends on when" because 1 - 2 hours is a lot of time to just sleep away. There's a lot more you could be doing. So what I do is take naps during class.

That's even more productive. You classes must be really entertaining.

 

[Howers]

No, naps are useless. They make it harder for you to sleep at night.

 

[Darkiekurdo]

I hate naps, they confuse me.

 

[Cyrus]

No, if the nap is to do any good it has to be at least 3 hours long. Thats why military pilots on long range flights are allowed to take 'power naps' 3-4 hours in length. Less than that, and you lose coordination and don't wake up 'refreshed' if your pulling long hours.

 

[mattmns]

I try to avoid taking naps, they mess with my sleep cycle.

 

[NoTime]

No, naps are useless. They make it harder for you to sleep at night.

Not useless. It improves your party stamina

 

[tgt]

I try to avoid taking naps, they mess with my sleep cycle.

That's the kind of answer I was looking for. The main disadvantage of naps seem to be disturbing sleep.

When I say refer to taking a nap, I always mean at an appropriate time when other committments are not affected. So the only trade off in that case would be not being able to sleep as well in the night. Hence Moonbear, your answer wasn't quiet on ball.

 

[moe darklight]

Napping has shown many benefits.

"When I was at NASA we gave the pilots a planned nap in the cockpit," says Rosekind, who is a board member of the National Sleep Foundation. "While two pilots flew the plane, the third would have 40 minutes to nap. We found they would sleep for 26 minutes, which boosted their performance by 34% and their alertness by 54%."

John Medina even argues that we are biologically hardwired to nap for 20-30 minutes, which is why many people get that afternoon sleepiness, even after a good night's sleep, and that the north-american lifestyle of sleeping once a day is not natural.

I've recently gone back to napping (in Argentina, 5:00 pm: the streets go quiet. everyone naps for 30 minutes, and then the world starts again. I always found this 5:00 pm silence eerie when I was a child for some reason), and I must say I do feel the difference. I don't get that haze at the end of the day and have much more energy to do things.

The pitfall of napping is over-napping, which can totally screw up your sleep patterns. But to me 20 minutes is just enough to refresh my inner battery for the last 6 hours of my day.

 

[Moonbear]

No, if the nap is to do any good it has to be at least 3 hours long. Thats why military pilots on long range flights are allowed to take 'power naps' 3-4 hours in length. Less than that, and you lose coordination and don't wake up 'refreshed' if your pulling long hours.

3 to 4 hours isn't a nap, for some that's a full night's sleep! I got through grad school by taking naps between about a half hour and hour during lunch time (and just ate quickly while heading back to the lab). That way I could get up for the early morning experiment before the 8 AM lecture, get through my morning classes, get a little sleep, then continue on in the lab until 9 or 10 PM (or all night when needed).

I try to avoid taking naps, they mess with my sleep cycle.

That's the whole point...I take them when I know my sleep cycle will be disrupted anyway. It's also why I answered "it depends." If you're only going to delay doing something that could be done by the time the nap time would be done and disrupt your sleep so you're in the same pattern the next day, it's not worth it. But, if you know you have to be up all night anyway, and that night might get a bit shorter if you aren't making mistakes because you're exhausted, then a nap is just the thing.

That's the kind of answer I was looking for. The main disadvantage of naps seem to be disturbing sleep.

When I say refer to taking a nap, I always mean at an appropriate time when other committments are not affected. So the only trade off in that case would be not being able to sleep as well in the night. Hence Moonbear, your answer wasn't quiet on ball.

I was on the ball for the question you actually asked. Now you're changing your question if you say the nap needs to be at a time when you don't have other commitments that are affected by taking it or not taking it. What would be the point of that? If you have nothing else to do later, or are able to get regular sleep at regular times, there's no need for a nap.

 

[GeorginaS]

(on an airplane, the oxygen level is knocked down a little making it real easy to fall asleep).

Is that why I do a long session of head nodding forward, chin going lax, and head snapping back up, repeatedly, for the first while when I get on planes? I can be fully rested and put me on a plane, and I'm all undignified head movements and facial expressions.

 

[Moonbear]

Hmm...I'm the opposite on planes. No matter how tired I am when I get on and how much I wish to sleep during a flight, I can't sleep. Wait, I take that back. On a recent flight, I WAS so exhausted that I nodded off during the flight, right up until the in-flight announcement about beverage service nearly startled me out of my skin and I was then wide-awake, heart racing while waiting for the beverage cart (and remained wide awake for the rest of the flight...the heart rate finally settled back to normal though).

 

[Tedjn]

There's no such thing as a nap for me. If you try to wake me up too early, I'll attack you and have no recollection of it when I wake up.

 

[BobG]

Is that why I do a long session of head nodding forward, chin going lax, and head snapping back up, repeatedly, for the first while when I get on planes? I can be fully rested and put me on a plane, and I'm all undignified head movements and facial expressions.

Typical cabin pressure and oxygen levels are about the same as you would encounter at about 8,000 feet in elevation with short periods where the oxygen and pressure levels would be the equivalent of 10,000 feet. http://www.uptodate.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=lung_dis/5339

It's actually dangerous to fly and go scuba diving too close together (especially only seconds apart, since that would usually only occur if your plane crashed in the ocean).

Of course, I live at 6,000 feet in elevation, meaning either that's a poor excuse for me falling asleep on planes or that Lisab is correct about the oxygen level being a little low in my TV room. There's still something funny about the air in airplanes.

(I can hardly wait until I can take naps in front of a 52" flat screen HDTV. That'll be so great )

 

[DaveC426913]

Could the OP please define 'good' in the context of the question?

There is no intrinisc goodness or not goodness to taking a nap.

 

[lisab]

Could the OP please define 'good' in the context of the question?

There is no intrinisc goodness or not goodness to taking a nap.

Well, of course you're right, Dave. Personal experience has to guide the individual. I know people who can never really wake up after a nap, and if they do nap, their night sleep pattern is disturbed.

But let me tell you...my after lunch naps are so incredibly delicious...naps are sooooo good for me !

 

[Moonbear]

It's actually dangerous to fly and go scuba diving too close together (especially only seconds apart, since that would usually only occur if your plane crashed in the ocean).

There's still something funny about the air in airplanes.

It's also very dry air, so people tend to get dehydrated a bit, which is part of why a lot of people feel really lousy after a day of flying.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

It's also very dry air, so people tend to get dehydrated a bit, which is part of why a lot of people feel really lousy after a day of flying.

I flew once to Las Vegas. I got up at 4:00 A.M. and made breakfast for my family, got the bags into the car and headed to the airport to be three hours early for the flight as was suggested by the travel agent. When we got there, the monorail that was supposed to take us from the parking lot to the terminal lost power and we had to wait for a shuttle bus. Our terminal was the last one on the route. We got to the ticket counter and had a pleasant conversation with the checkin clerk concerning the fact that our tickets were not recorded in their system. After a warm chat which bordered on mayhem, we paid the fee for too much luggage and headed for the gate. At the security checkpoint we took off our shoes, belts, hats, jackets, and well, modesty prohibits me to go on. We boarded the plane and prepared for a short snooze when we were informed, in the nicest possible way, that the plane we were on was experiencing a problem with the captain's cup holder and we needed to get on a different one. Once everything was sorted out, we started for Las Vegas just as our luggage started for Timbuctu. The flight was pleasant enough considering how tight the seat was, how little leg room there was, how many people you had to wait behind to get to the lavatory, how infrequently the guy next to me bathed, and how many times the stewardess had to tell us that the captain had turned on the seatbelt sign because of turbulance as if I couldn't feel it in my gut. I was pretty starving by the time the stewardess got to me and asked if I wanted the chicken or the steak. By this time she had had it with surley passengers who take, take, take, and give nothing in return. I said I preferred salmon and she asked me if I would like to step outside for a moment. I ended up with a bread sandwich interupted by what was probably balogna. For some reason that I couldn't put my finger on, when I got off the plane I felt lousy. Moonbear might be right, perhaps it was the dry air in the airplane. Las Vegas was great though.

 

[D H]

Two things knock me out almost immediately: TV's and riding an airplane (on an airplane, the oxygen level is knocked down a little making it real easy to fall asleep).

Nova puts me to sleep almost all the time now. Particularly if its an interesting topic. Is it the background music they use?

I have one addition to your list: 1 PM meetings. I dread them. Someone always shuts the door to avoid disturbing people who are doing real work. The room starts to warm up from all the people crammed in the room. Someone else always dim the lights in anticipation of the presentation. The presenter, inevitably someone in need of a "How to" course on giving good presentations, simply reads directly from overly dense viewgraphs in a monotone voice. Finally, someone else has to nudge D H to make him stop snoring.:zzz:

 

[BobG]

Nova puts me to sleep almost all the time now. Particularly if its an interesting topic. Is it the background music they use?

I have one addition to your list: 1 PM meetings. I dread them. Someone always shuts the door to avoid disturbing people who are doing real work. The room starts to warm up from all the people crammed in the room. Someone else always dim the lights in anticipation of the presentation. The presenter, inevitably someone in need of a "How to" course on giving good presentations, simply reads directly from overly dense viewgraphs in a monotone voice. Finally, someone else has to nudge D H to make him stop snoring.:zzz:

I love watching people walk out of those meetings. You can tell who the rookies are. They're the ones with red spots in odd places on their faces (like the middle of their forehead). They never learned the right handed orthoganol tripod method - where your thumb is under your chin, your forefinger runs up the side of your cheek, and your middle finger is between your lower lip and chin. Gives you that thoughtful appearance, plus provides stability so your face doesn't wind up hitting the table when you fall asleep.

 

[tgt]

I was on the ball for the question you actually asked. Now you're changing your question if you say the nap needs to be at a time when you don't have other commitments that are affected by taking it or not taking it. What would be the point of that? If you have nothing else to do later, or are able to get regular sleep at regular times, there's no need for a nap.

Looking back the question seemed pretty open ended. I'll describe my situation:

My sleeping pattern was good until some neighbours woke me up during very early mornings and I ended up needing naps. The neighbors aren't making such loud noises now but my sleeping pattern has been disturbed as I seem to need to take a nap at 6pm each day. It can go for 1 hour but today 2 hours. And I'm afraid I can't get to sleep until 1am hence needing a nap the next day. The nap causes me to not able to sleep early and the cycles goes on...

Hence my situation has got nothing to do with other commitments. I am pretty much forced to take the nap because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to concentrate.

What should I do?

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My father would turn on a baseball game. The white noise of the crowd put him to sleep. In those days, the announcer wouldn't fill you with useless information, just tell you what you were watching. My grandfather would just sit in a chair and sleep for 5 minutes whenever he got a chance. He was a very busy man, but always seemed relaxed.

 

[BobG]

My father would turn on a baseball game. The white noise of the crowd put him to sleep. In those days, the announcer wouldn't fill you with useless information, just tell you what you were watching. My grandfather would just sit in a chair and sleep for 5 minutes whenever he got a chance. He was a very busy man, but always seemed relaxed.

Listening to night games on the radio had the same effect - almost.

The first few years I listened to baseball games, I got to listen to Harry Caray and Jack Buck broadcast the Cardinals games when they had Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, and Curt Flood, plus a trio of young pitchers in Nellie Briles, Steve Carlton, and Larry Jaster. Carlton obviously had the best career of the three, but Nellie Briles had the much cooler name.

Then I moved to Akron and got to listen to Herb Score and the Indians. I think that's when staying awake for the end of the game started to seem less important. But I still remember that first year when the Indians had two great prospects in Richie Scheinblum and Lou Piniella (they were even on the same baseball card where it stated in plain writing that they were great prospects!). Unfortunately, that's the year baseball added the Royals and the Pilots, so the Indians gave up Piniella in the expansion draft while protecting the better of two in Scheinblum. He had such a great start: 0/4 in his first game. But, his 3rd game was an incredible 0 for 7! In fact, Scheinblum went hitless for the entire month of April! It was incredible! And, naturally, Lou Piniella won rookie of the year for the Royals. And so started over two decades of following the hapless Indians - at least until their great pennant race against the White Sox in '94.

I'm not sure which was more memorable: 10-cent-beer night in 1974 or Joe Charboneau celebrating his 1980 rookie of the year award by showing reporters how he could drink beer through his nose.

 

[lisab]

I flew once to Las Vegas. I got up at 4:00 A.M. and made breakfast for my family, got the bags into the car and headed to the airport to be three hours early for the flight as was suggested by the travel agent. When we got there, the monorail that was supposed to take us from the parking lot to the terminal lost power and we had to wait for a shuttle bus. Our terminal was the last one on the route. We got to the ticket counter and had a pleasant conversation with the checkin clerk concerning the fact that our tickets were not recorded in their system. After a warm chat which bordered on mayhem, we paid the fee for too much luggage and headed for the gate. At the security checkpoint we took off our shoes, belts, hats, jackets, and well, modesty prohibits me to go on. We boarded the plane and prepared for a short snooze when we were informed, in the nicest possible way, that the plane we were on was experiencing a problem with the captain's cup holder and we needed to get on a different one. Once everything was sorted out, we started for Las Vegas just as our luggage started for Timbuctu. The flight was pleasant enough considering how tight the seat was, how little leg room there was, how many people you had to wait behind to get to the lavatory, how infrequently the guy next to me bathed, and how many times the stewardess had to tell us that the captain had turned on the seatbelt sign because of turbulance as if I couldn't feel it in my gut. I was pretty starving by the time the stewardess got to me and asked if I wanted the chicken or the steak. By this time she had had it with surley passengers who take, take, take, and give nothing in return. I said I preferred salmon and she asked me if I would like to step outside for a moment. I ended up with a bread sandwich interupted by what was probably balogna. For some reason that I couldn't put my finger on, when I got off the plane I felt lousy. Moonbear might be right, perhaps it was the dry air in the airplane. Las Vegas was great though.

Serves you right, booking your flight on Air Bedlam.

My 16-year-old daughter flatly refuses to fly anymore. Part phobia, part...well, read what Jimmy posted. Perhaps she's the sensible one in the family.

 

[Holocene]

I fly small, non-pressurized airplanes at fairly low altitudes.

After a flight, I ALWAYS feel like a nap. Just something about flying I guess. It does take a lot of concentration and is demanding for the pilot...even if it's only a Cessna. There are a lot of things going on that many passengers do not realize.