Validating and Extending the Three Process Model of Alertness in Airline Operations

Abstract

Sleepiness and fatigue are important risk factors in the transport sector and bio-mathematical sleepiness, sleep and fatigue modeling is increasingly becoming a valuable tool for assessing safety of work schedules and rosters in Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS). The present study sought to validate the inner workings of one such model, Three Process Model (TPM), on aircrews and extend the model with functions to model jetlag and to directly assess the risk of any sleepiness level in any shift schedule or roster with and without knowledge of sleep timings. We collected sleep and sleepiness data from 136 aircrews in a real life situation by means of an application running on a handheld touch screen computer device (iPhone, iPod or iPad) and used the TPM to predict sleepiness with varying level of complexity of model equations and data. The results based on multilevel linear and non-linear mixed effects models showed that the TPM predictions correlated with observed ratings of sleepiness, but explorative analyses suggest that the default model can be improved and reduced to include only two-processes (S+C), with adjusted phases of the circadian process based on a single question of circadian type. We also extended the model with a function to model jetlag acclimatization and with estimates of individual differences including reference limits accounting for 50%, 75% and 90% of the population as well as functions for predicting the probability of any level of sleepiness for ecological assessment of absolute and relative risk of sleepiness in shift systems for safety applications.

Effects and clinical feasibility of a behavioral treatment for sleep problems in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a pragmatic within-group pilot evaluation

“…Additional background information was collected using a form with questions on age, sex, marital status, education level, and current occupation and questions on psychiatric diagnoses and problems, medication use, and morning-eveningness. More specifically, for type of ADHD, patients were asked to choose which described their type best: Predominantly inattentive, Predominantly hyperactive/impulsive, Combined subtype, or NOS; for psychiatric diagnoses an open-ended question was used; for psychiatric problems during the last year, patients were given a list and asked to mark which applied to them; medication use was gauged with an open ended questions with examples, and medications were classified according to stated use and/or substance; circadian type was measured with the question on morning-eveningness from the Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire, on a five point scale (Extreme morning type, morning type, intermediate type, evening type, extreme evening type) [33].…”

Visual perception affected by motivation and alertness controlled by a noninvasive brain-computer interface

“…of the person [ 12 – 15 ]. Therefore, along with the knowledge of basic features of the brain activity in solving particular tasks, it is of great practical importance to study the influence of the human factors, such as responsibility, motivation, attention, and stress [ 16 , 17 ]. In this context, the neurophysiological research of visual perception focused on the detection of brain activity and interactions between different brain regions [ 18 – 22 ] demonstrated an increased activity in various brain areas, especially in the occipital cortex [ 18 , 19 , 23 ].…”

Working hours associated with unintentional sleep at work among airline pilots

“…Our finding is relevant, as unintentional sleep at work may compromise the safety of flights and it is a reflection of the conditions and organization of work of Brazilian airline pilots 12 . According to Cabon et al 3 , pilots who fly long distances are particularly susceptible to lapses during vigil, as well as during periods of low workload.…”

“…Ingre et al 12 have observed that unintentional sleep at work is a reflection of the work conditions and organization of pilots. The authors 12 have also shown that unintentional sleep at work may compromise the safety of flights.…”