Hi-tech e stanze del sonno per la guerra al jet lag


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Hi-tech e stanze del sonno per la guerra al jet lag

Stop a stanchezza e nervosismo. Il "mal di fuso" colpisce tre viaggiatori su quattro. Aeroporti e spa fiutano il business. In futuro ci saranno pillole miracolose e camere d'albergo ad hoc per chi fa voli molto lunghi

di IRENE MARIA SCALISE

ROMA - Tra i viaggiatori è una delle poche cose democratiche. Colpisce indipendentemente dal costo del biglietto. In classe economica, in business e persino nella costosissima first. E' il "maledetto" jet lag. Tradotto in fastidiosi sintomi: stanchezza, nausea, nervosismo e anche un po' di tachicardia. Insomma, un disastro. Da far pensare che, in fondo, il prossimo anno sarebbe meglio rimanere a casa. Il jet lag, o sindrome da fuso orario, è provocato dall'alterazione dei cicli biologici. Colpisce tre viaggiatori su quattro. Decisamente peggio dell'influenza A. E' più insidioso nel caso di voli trasversali. Cioè quelli che si spostano da ovest verso est e viceversa. Per eliminarlo radicalmente, concordano i globetrotter, per ora c'è poco da fare. In futuro, invece, arriveranno software, pillole miracolose e camere d'albergo ad hoc. Per chi affronta lunghi stop over a Dubai, Bangkok o Parigi sono a disposizione Jet lag theraphy per ritrovare le energie perdute in cielo. La British Airways, in collaborazione con lo Sleep assessment and advisory service, ha sviluppato un Jet lag advisor. In pratica rispondendo ad alcune domande, nel sito della compagnia inglese, si ottengono consigli personalizzati.

All'arrivo in città, poi, nei centri benessere ci sono pacchetti ad hoc. Fondamentale è curare l'alimentazione. "Naturalmente dipende dal tipo di necessità di ogni viaggiatore", spiega Luca Piretta, dottore in Scienza dell'alimentazione umana all'università La Sapienza di Roma, "chi vuole anticipare il riposo dovrà, prima di andare a letto, ricorrere a cibi che contengono casiomorfina e che inducono il sonno come latte, formaggi e miele. Chi, al contrario, vuole restare sveglio dovrà assumere sostanze nervine come caffè, cioccolato e coca cola".

Un valido aiuto è la melatonina. "E' una sostanza naturale che agisce sulla regolamentazione del ritmo sonno veglia", precisa Piretta, "ideale per chi ha problemi". Ma c'è chi non si accontenta. E guarda al futuro. Contro il "mal di fuso" l'università del Michigan ha messo recentemente a punto un software in grado di ridurre gli effetti del jet lag. Basato su un modello matematico, usa i dati provenienti dal livello di luce dell'ambiente e dai fusi orari attraversati. Lo scopo è "sincronizzare" l'orologio biologico con la nuova meta.

In fase di sperimentazione, presso il Brigham and Women's Hospital di Boston, c'è il Tasimelteon: un prodotto chimico che regola il ritmo biologico. Fa dormire quando si vuole, più in fretta e più a lungo. Ma, per ora, il consiglio è avere pazienza. "Non bisogna agitarsi perché, come accade quando c'è il cambio di ora legale, il nostro corpo ha bisogno di qualche giorno per abituarsi", spiega il professor Luigi Ferini Strambi, direttore del Centro del sonno del San Raffaele di Milano, "bisogna usare degli accorgimenti per ritrovare la sincronia. Aprire le finestre al mattino presto, anche se il sonno spinge a poltrire, e la sera non avvicinarsi a fonti di luce come computer e televisione". E i farmaci? "Sconsiglio di seguire la tendenza più diffusa", conclude Ferini Strambi, "che è quella di ricorrere agli ipnotici la sera e gli stimolanti al mattino".

Per chi non ha fretta in futuro sarà a disposizione una camera d'albergo dove, architettura, tecnologia e corpo umano si fondono. Disegnata dal Laboratorio Australiano di architettura Lava si presenta con luce anti jet lag e grandi finestre multimediali. Ed è stata progettata proprio per i viaggiatori professionisti.

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Discusfra ha detto:
Tra i viaggiatori è una delle poche cose democratiche. Colpisce indipendentemente dal costo del biglietto. In classe economica, in business e persino nella costosissima first. E' il "maledetto" jet lag.
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Non mi pare. Se voli in economy di notte è molto più difficile dormire e in pratica è come se si fossero attraversati molti più fusi orari.
 
jtstream ha detto:
Anche in cockpit non è che si dorma poi così bene....
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ma perchè si dovrebbe dormire in cockpit se si passano vari fusi? Mai sentito, a meno che sia una novità delle low cost. Come tutti sanno si va nel crew bulk se ci sono molte ore di volo, sia Piloti sia Assistenti di volo, e io sinceramente mi riposo molto bene nei crew rest orizzontali.
 
ilredelpop ha detto:
ma perchè si dovrebbe dormire in cockpit se si passano vari fusi? Mai sentito, a meno che sia una novità delle low cost. Come tutti sanno si va nel crew bulk se ci sono molte ore di volo, sia Piloti sia Assistenti di volo, e io sinceramente mi riposo molto bene nei crew rest orizzontali.
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CONTROLLED REST PERIODS SHOWN TO IMPROVE PILOT ALERTNESS
NASA, 20050229 by Donald G. James

Rest during long-haul flights improves pilot alertness. This is the conclusion of a recently completed study at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., providing the first concrete evidence that there may be substantial safety benefits from allowing pilots to obtain limited rest in the cockpit during long-haul, international flights.

"These findings confirm our previous studies that showed international flight crews often experience considerable fatigue and sleep loss. We now have direct scientific evidence that short, carefully controlled rest periods can act as a 'safety valve' to reduce fatigue and improve alertness during the most important phases of flight such as descent and landing," said Dr. R. Curtis Graeber, principal investigator of the study and Chief of the Flight Human Factors Branch at Ames.

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Incident and accident reports indicate that good flight crew performance is especially important near the end of any flight when workload increases and the crew must often deal with air traffic control problems, uncooperative weather and potentially unfamiliar airports. "Unfortunately, this is also the time when they are most likely to be the most tired after a long trip crossing several time zones," said Graeber. Consequently, measures that can help the crew perform better when the job requires the best performance have significant implications for reducing pilot error and enhancing safety.

The research project, co-sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), was carried out with the cooperation of Northwest Airlines and United Airlines during regularly scheduled trans-Pacific flights. The scientists examined the levels of alertness in three-person flight crews during long-haul flights, the pilots' ability to obtain quality rest in the cockpit environment and the effectiveness of preplanned, cockpit rest periods to improve pilot alertness and performance.

A total of ten volunteer Boeing-747 crews were placed in one of two groups: a preplanned rest group and a non-rest control group. Crew members in the rest group were allowed to rest one-at-a-time on a preplanned rotation basis during the cruise portion of four successive flights. Two crew members monitored and maintained control of the plane while the other pilot had a 40-minute opportunity to rest. The control group of pilots operated its four flights as usual with no preplanned rest.

To document changes in fatigue and alertness, researchers took a variety of measurements: Laboratory-type performance tests evaluated pilot vigilance and sustained attention; wrist monitors provided a 24-hour measure of activity level; subjective reports of mood and other factors were recorded in a log book. Also, continuous measurement of brain activity (i.e., electroencephalogram -- EEG), by a portable unit adapted especially for NASA, was used to determine physiological levels of alertness.

Two NASA researchers observed and monitored all of the volunteer crews on the flight deck. The researchers found that when given the opportunity to rest in their seats, the pilots generally were able to fall asleep easily and sleep well. Later, these crew members demonstrated significantly higher levels of vigilance than their no-rest counterparts. These differences between the two groups were especially dramatic near the end of the cruise phase of flight, just before the pilot starts the descent for landing. Also, pilots who could rest were less adversely affected by consecutive flight segments and night flights.

This study is a part of an on-going NASA/FAA collaborative research program to study fatigue, sleep loss and circadian rhythm disruptions (i.e., jet lag) in commercial and military aviation and, most recently, the role of these factors in the manned space program.

Previous research with long-haul crews has shown that repeated time zone crossings often result in poor sleep patterns during hotel layovers, particularly after eastward flights. While pilots sometimes sleep well, their ability to do so varies both among individuals and at different times. Experienced crew members were found to be poor predictors of their own sleepiness when compared with objective measurements. The overall impact of these findings is that there is often at least one crew member who is not optimally rested to perform flight duties.

The current results demonstrate that preplanned rest periods during low workload phases of flight may provide a safety valve for the sleep loss and fatigue experienced by crews during long-haul flights. Planned cockpit rest periods may possibly prevent excessive fatigue and improve alertness and performance during critical phases of flight.

Cockpit rest currently is allowed among military transport crews and among airline crews in some other countries. The FAA is now reviewing the NASA-Ames research results. Collaborators on this study included researchers from Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, San Diego.

Il tuo OM-A recita :

Controlled rest on the flight deck is an acknowledged and effective method of improving levels of flight crew alertness for critical phases of flight.
NASA research has demonstrated significant performance benefit during the later phases of flight to flight crew members from short periods of controlled rest.
Even though crew members should stay alert at all times during flight, unexpected fatigue can occur as a result of sleep disturbance and circadian disruption. To cover for this unexpected fatigue, and to regain a high level of alertness, a controlled rest procedure on the Flight Deck can be used. Moreover, the use of controlled rest has been shown to increase significantly levels of alertness during the later phases of flight, particularly after the top of descent, and is considered a good use of CRM principles.
Controlled rest should be used in conjunction with other on board fatigue management counter measures such as physical exercise, bright cockpit illumination at appropriate times, balanced eating and drinking, and intellectual activity. The maximum rest time has been chosen to limit deep sleep with consequent long recovery time (sleep inertia).
The following procedures should not be used to influence or extend duty time limitations, nor for them to prevail over sound professionalism, vigilance or discipline:
• Controlled rest procedures must not be used during flight sectors of less than three hours.
• Controlled rest procedures may only be used during the cruise portion of the flight, between completion of the top of climb scan and 30 minutes before top of descent.
• Controlled rest should only take place during a low workload part of the flight.
• During periods of controlled rest procedures, the non-resting crew members must wear their seatbelt including shoulder harness, and headset.
• The Commander is responsible for the planning and the use of controlled rest. He must take into account considerations of airmanship, weather, workload, aircraft serviceability and fatigue levels.
• Only (1) one flight crew member at a time should take rest, at his station; the harness should be used and the seat positioned to minimise unintentional interference with the controls.
• Controlled rest periods must be limited to 45 minutes per flight crew member with another 20 minutes allowed for operational orientation before resuming flight deck duties.
• The Commander should ensure that the other flight crew member(s) is (are) adequately briefed to carry out the duties of the resting crew member. One pilot must be fully able to exercise control of the aeroplane at all times. Any system intervention which would normally require a cross check according to multi crew principles should be avoided until the resting crew member resumes his duties.
• In case of (2) crew operations, means should be established to ensure that the non-resting flight crew member remains alert. This should include frequent checks bythe Cabin Crew . In this case, the Commander should inform the Cabin Manager of the intention of the flight crew member to take controlled rest, and of the time of the end of that rest; Frequent contact should be established.
 
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