Originally Posted by
Sniper
Dr. Tom Nesthus of the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute division of the Federal Aviation Administration testified on Wednesday (to the NTSB) that his research showed:
- less than 8 hours of sleep is “an acute sleep debt”.
- going “more than 17 hours without sleep produces a degradation in performance”.
(The quotes are his actual words, the rest is my paraphrasing. I'm a pilot, not a court reporter - I can't type quickly.)
Where do your 16 and 5 hour #'s come from? Not debating you, just looking to read more research on the issue.
Both the FAA and Europeans had an Aviation Fatigue Symposium a while back, the figures came from a circular that was put out at the time, but mind you the studies used were from multiple shift work professions (truck drivers, doctors, and few crews), I believe an aviation tailored study may be closer to 17 and 8 as you said (I didn't get a chance to read today's testimony).
I will find and post the link as soon as I have them, all I have is a copy of the circular.