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PHYSIOLOGYCAL
WORK
CONDITION

Unit 5

Learning Objectives
Upon succesful completion of this unit, you will be able to :

• Describe and explain the diverse

components of the physical work
condition.

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Unit overview
• This unit will discuss topics as
fatigue, sleep, stress,
illumination, noise, work and
task load

Fatigue
• ICAO defines fatigue as:

A physiological state of reduced mental or physical performance

capability resulting from sleep loss, extended wakefulness,
circadian phase, and/or workload (mental and/or physical
activity) that can impair a person's alertness and ability to
perform safety related operational duties.

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Type of FATIGUE
Transient fatigue

• acute fatigue brought on by extreme sleep restriction or

extended hours awake within 1or2 days

Cumulative fatigue

• fatigue brought on by repeated mild sleep restriction or

extended hours awake across a series of days

Circadian fatigue

• the reduced performance during nightime hours, typically

between 2:00a.m. and 05:59 a.m

Fatigue in Aviation
Fatigue cannot be eliminated from aviation operations, as we can see in the following list:
• Night flying
• Trans-meridian crossing
• Irregular and unpredictable schedules
• Long duty days
• Reduced sleep opportunities
Some misconceptions about fatigue:
• Motivation/money/professionalism can eliminate susceptibility to effects of fatigue
• Absence of accidents means fatigue is not a problem
• Human can accurately assess how fatigue they are

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Fatigue usually results in

impaired standards of
operation with increased
likeliness of error,
because of
1.Increased reaction time
2.Reduced attentiveness
3.Impaired memory
4.Withdrawn mood

Effects of Fatigue on Performance

• Physical
• Stress, Depression, Anxiety
• Emotional
• Less involved in family life, using alcohol/drugs
• Reduced Ability to Remain Task-Focused
• Mental
• Altered decision-making
• Loss of attention
• Judgement error

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Effects of Fatigue on Performance

• Overall Impairment
• Poor and Careless Performance
• Greater Tolerance for Error
• Repetitive Conversation
• Increased Incidence of Misinterpretation
• Reduced Cooperation
• Impairments in Crew Coordination
• Increased Potential for Error in Communication

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SLEEP
Two areas of sleep science – ICAO :
• Sleep Science
• The effects of not getting enough sleep over one night or multiple nights
• The recovery from that sleep loss
• Circadian Rhythms
• means 24 hours cycle in the biochemical and physiological process of
humans. that regulates our body functions, based on our wake/sleep cycle.
when rhythm is interrupted, it will have physiological and behavioral
impacts.
• Ability to perform mental & physical work

Circadian Rythms

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Why We
Sleep

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Sleep is a key physiological

mechanism for the maintenance
of our body and mind

• restore brain functions, memory,

attention, problem solving and
keep active our cognitive
functions
• restore, grow, and maintain
muscle and bones, skin, and
most of our organs;
• to restore and activate the
immune system

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Types of Sleep

NREM Sleep (66-75% of night)

• Stage N1: Light Sleep or drowsy sleep-
transition period (5-10 mins.)
• Stage N2: Sleep spindles, bursts of
rapid brain wave activity to relax the
body muscles and activities (20 mins.)
• Stage N3&4: also called Delta sleep,
very deep sleep period (20 to 30
minutes)
• REM Sleep (25-34% of night)
Dreaming period, eye movement,
increased brain activity, voluntary
body muscles paralyzed, high activity

REM: Rapid Eye Movement

Factor Affecting Sleep

• Age
• Alcohol (more than 2 drinks)
• Suppresses REM the first half of the night
• REM rebound in second half of sleep
• Withdrawal effects = more disrupted sleep
• Environment
• Noise, Lighting, temperature
• Sleep Disorder
• Medication
• Sleep Pills

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Jet Lag
• Jet lag is An extreme tiredness and other physical
effects felt by a person after a long flight across
different time zones.

• Jet Lag only occurs when flying from East-West or

from West to East. In other words when we change
time zones. It does’nt occur form North-South and
vice versa

• Traveling from west to east shortens the day,

Whereas from east to west travel lengthens the
day. it probably reflects the greater difficulty of
advancing rather than delaying the body's
internal clock

• In general, symptoms persist for 1-1.5 days per

time zone crossed (depend on each person)

Stress
is a bodily response to a stimulus that disturbs or interferes
with the normal" physiological equilibrium of a person

in the context of aviation, refers to a state of physical, mental,

or emotional strain due to some externalor internal stimulus.

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Stress
External stressors can be :

➢ Environmental, such as crowded space, humidity, air pollution, and physical work
conditions (see below).

➢ Psychosocial, such as workplace conflicts, family conflicts, time pressure, low job
satisfaction, feeling lack of support, financial problems.

➢ Work related, such as Management practices regarding wokload and resources, process
planning in the organization, control and supervision styles, individual consideration,
training, information and data accessibility, operational pressure, non-standard
operations.

Stress
Internal stressors can be:

➢ Inability to accept uncertainty.

➢ Pessimism .
➢ Negative self-talk
➢ Rigid thinking, lack of flexibility.
➢ All-or-nothing attitude.
➢ A need to always be perfect
➢ Unrealistic expectations,

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OTHER PHYSICAL WORK

CONDITION

NOISE
• any unwanted sound, especially if it is loud, unpleasant &

A
annoying
• Normal :87dB (8hrs), maks : 100dB(2hr)/110dB(30’).
• Use ear Protection : 115dB ; Pain :140dB.
ILLUMINATION

B
• as the amount of light striking a surface
• working outside during daylight may have sufficient natural
light to see well.

TEMPERATURE
•
•
The temperature gets higher, the heart rate increases
the temperature drops, muscles generating extra
metabolic heat through shivering
C
VIBRATION
•
•
Vibrations of 1-4 HZ interfere with breathing
Vibrations of 30-40 HZ influence mood and
equilibrium and vision will be degraded
D

OTHER .... (CONT’D)

WORKLOAD
• is the amount of work an individual has to do, can be as quantitative/
qualitative (the difficulty of the work)
• Symptoms include a drop in work performance, depression, anxiety and
sleeping difficulties

TASK-LOAD
• the amount of work expected to be delivered over an assigned period
of time
• Where Task-load is explicit, Workloads [largely] subjective

OVERLOAD
• Overload situations can occur gradually or be instantaneous
• Sometimes the mental and physical demands of the task are
greater than what the professional can provide

UNDERLOAD
• Sometimes the mental and physical demands of the task
are below the threshold (night shift, Low task-load)
• boredom, lack of attention

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KEY LEARNING POINTS

01 Appreciate the limiting

03 The function and structure of the
factors in adjustment of heart and its components and
human body to flight processes

condition

02 The process b y which a living

organism exchange gasses with its
environment

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STUDY CHECK

THANK YOU

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