Research Highlight: Are Pilots Flying Into Depression?

Many of us will have personal experience of making more mistakes when we are tired than when we are well rested – but do you ever question how much sleep your airline pilot is getting? A research team in Dublin City University  (DCU) is doing just that.

Working long duty hours has often been associated with increased risk of incidents and accidents in transport industries. According to Folkard et al.¹ the risk of an accident exponentially increases with time on shift. It was found that relative to 8-h shifts, there is a 13% increased risk of an accident on 10-h shifts while 12-h shifts are associated with a 27% increased risk of an accident. This increased risk is now being examined in airline pilots across Europe by a Dublin City University based research team.

In a self-report survey of over 900 airline pilots,  (94.9% of which were male – which is not surprising given the gender balance across the profession) a strong and scientifically significant relationship between duty hours and sleep disturbance, sleep disturbance and fatigue in the cockpit, and fatigue in the cockpit and microsleeps (an involuntary sleep episode lasting 5-10 seconds) in the cockpit were found ².

Unsurprisingly, these stats have raised concerns about the safety and wellbeing of both pilots and passengers. While the results of the team’s research may be concerning to you if you are heading abroad on your summer holidays soon– fear not. In the aviation industry an incident is not an accident – it is “‘an occurrence, other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft which affects or could affect the safety of operation’ ³

The aim of the research project is to investigate the effects and impact of sleep deprivation and fatigue on commercial airline pilots’ psychological functioning, pilot-specific skills and flying performance. The research team is led by PhD candidate Anna Donnla O’Hagan of the Multisensory Motor Learning Lab. Ms. O’Hagan brings to this project a vast amount of experience in human performance research with a BSc. in Sports Science and Health from DCU and an MSc in Applied Sport & Exercise Psychology from Bangor University, Wales. Following her MSc. she began working as a postgraduate research assistant in the Applied Sports Performance Research Group based in the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University investigating chronobiology, fatigue determinants and measures applicable within an aviation environment. Simultaneously, she worked with a variety of individual and team-based athletes across a range of sporting disciplines from Club to International level as a trainee sport psychologist.  The current project is funded by the Irish Research Council through the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme

Though the risk of incidents is of great concern for both those flying and the employers of the pilots – of equal concern may well be the associated risk of depression for those who work extended duty hours⁴. Results of this research group’s study found pilots who reported typically spending longer hours on duty per week were twice as likely to report feeling depressed or anxious. Pilots’ experiences of job-related sleep disturbance and fatigue may explain why pilots who typically spend long hours on duty each week are more likely to report feeling depressed or anxious. Whilst cross-sectional research such as surveys cannot definitively offer a causal affect, the results suggested further investigation was needed.

The most recent of the DCU team’s work aims to recreate a fatigued working environment for airline pilots and expose them to tasks they would complete in a regular work day. Based on the DCU campus, pilots attend the virtual reality clinic for a period of 24 hours where they complete a range of cognitive, physical and physiological tests. The work of this research team, under the guidance of Ms. O’ Hagan will hopefully contribute to our understanding of human performance under fatigued conditions and allow numerous industries to make informed decisions about duty hours and safe working conditions.

The DCU team are currently recruiting commercial airline pilots to participate in this aspect of the research with full confidentiality guaranteed. If you are interested in participation or finding out more please contact

anna.ohagan3@mail.dcu.ie

1. Folkard S, Lombardi DA, Tucker PT. Shiftwork: safety, sleepiness and sleep. Ind Health. 2005;43:20–23
2. O’Hagan, A. D., Issartel, J., Fletcher, R., & Warrington, G. (2016). Duty hours and incidents in flight among commercial airline pilots. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 22(2), 165–172. http://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2016.1146441
3. International Civil Aviation Organisation. Aircraft accident and incident investigation – annex 13 9th ed. Montreal: Report of Accident Investigation and Prevention (AIG) Divisional Meeting; 2009; 10.
4. O’Hagan, A. D., Issartel, J., Nevill, A., & Warrington, G. (2017). Flying Into Depression – Pilot’s Sleep and Fatigue Experiences Can Explain Differences in Perceived Depression and Anxiety. Workplace Health & Safety, 65(3), 109–117. http://doi.org/10.1177/2165079916659506