Jet Setter Health and Safety: How to Improve Your
Performance While on the Go
Fred Etheridge, SMS Sr. Manager
Davana Pilczuk PhD, Corporate Ergonomics Manager
What is Human Performance?
1. What the body is capable of doing
2. How efficient the body is at doing it
Biggest Threats to Performance While Traveling:
1. Jet lag
2. Diet & alcohol
3. Physical aches and pains
4. Too many stressors
Performance Factors:
1. Physical2. Psychological3. Environmental
How do we optimize your performance and reduce your chance of performance error?
Human Anatomy & Physiology
Engine:
Heart
Lungs
Blood vessels
Structural System:
Muscles
Bones
Tendons
Ligaments
Driver Fuel
Stress and The Brain
Prefrontal Cortex: DecisionsJudgementPlanningMoral reasoning
CEO Fightor
Flight Primitive brainActivates stressresponse
Crossing More Than Two Time Zones
• It only takes a few hours of lost sleep combined with business travel to significantly reduce your performance
• Business travelers perceive themselves as performing much higher than they actually did
• Travelers performed best at mid-day and not early morning
• On average, travelers slept only five hours the night before the trip
• Those who exercised during their trip performed 61% better than non-exercisers
• Travelers tend to lose almost eight hours of sleep by the time they return home
Pre-Flight
• Plan ahead
• Sleep kit: ear plugs, eye covers
• Exercise: the day before and eat healthy
• Try and get sound sleep the night before
• Clothing: comfortable, layered and loose fitting
• Stress: be prepared for travel delays
In-Flight
• Get comfortable
• Drink plenty of water
• Avoid alcohol and caffeine: one drink in the air can act like two on the ground
• Naps: short naps on short flights, longer naps on longer flights
How Lack of Sleep Affects Us
3 Distinct Areas Are Affected
Reaction Time
Cognition: how we think, retain memories, process information and make decisions
Emotions: anger, sadness, and frustration are greatly heightened by lack of quality sleep
Activity and Light
Exercise:
• Reduces cortisol
• Reduces adrenaline
• Produces endorphins
• Levels blood sugar
• Helps with blood pressure
• Helps you sleep!!!Light:• Increases serotonin
• Improves your mood
• Helps regulate sleep
Directions: Complete each individual column
1 I A aDo this column
first.Then this column 2nd.
Then this column 3rd.
Then this column last.
1 I A a2 II B b3 III C c4 IV D d5 V E e
Directions: Complete each row
1 I A aDo this row first. 1 I A a
Then this row 2nd 2 II B A
Then this row 3rd. 3 III C B
Etc… 4 IV D C
Pace the Stressors
+ +Give briefing AC maintenance Difficult conversation
Inte
rnal
Str
ess
Exte
rnal
Str
ess
The Effects of Cortisol
• Alters immune system responses
• Suppresses the digestive system and growth processes.
• Alters all most all body processes
• Speeds up aging
Memory limitations
General health not what it was
Reduced vision
Reduced hearing
Fatigued
Size/agilityEffects of over the counter medication
Substance abuse
Limited skills Physical
Under-motivated
StressLimited awarenessComplacency
Clouded perception
Deficient communication
Concentration lapse
Badattitude
Mental Self –induced time pressure
Workload/multi-tasking
Distractionor
interruption
Adverse climatic conditions
Deficient teamwork
Commercial pressure
Organizational
Deficient access/ equipment
Confusing maintenance
data
Bad lighting
Unavailable or inaccurateprocedures
Complex aircraft & systems
Limited education/training
Excessive maintenance system
induced time pressure
Assembly / Installation
ExcessiveNoise
Mental / Physical / Organizational