值夜班，伤身伤神伤脑筋(有声)
Most Night Shift Workers Don't Adapt To The Hourshttp://image.l.hjfile.cn/file/201104/201104226454436861.mp3
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MARY LOUISE KELLY, host: We've been following the numerous reports about air traffic controllers caught sleeping on the job. Controllers often work overnight shifts or rotate among many different shifts. The Federal Aviation Administration is now changing staff scheduling practices to address fatigue among controllers.
Charles Czeisler is the director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and he told me why workers like air traffic controllers have a hard time adjusting to night shifts.
Dr. CHARLES CZEISLER (Harvard Medical School): People can become completely adapted to overnight work, but most do not, even if they work permanent night shifts. And the reason for that is that on their days off they typically flip back into trying to function during the daytime and sleeping at night.
KELLY: On the weekends and that type thing.
Dr. CZEISLER: Exactly. Moreover, they're living in a world in which the sun is up during the daytime and it's dark at night. And the light/dark cycle is the most powerful synchronizer of our internal biological clock. Now, it's possible to increase light intensity during nightshift work and use shorter wavelengths of light to help facilitate adaptation to working at night.
But nonetheless, most nightshift workers never fully adapt to their schedules, and hence it is more difficult for them to sustain alertness and performance when they're working at night.
KELLY: You know, it's curious, because people in all kinds of professions face sleep deprivation, many of the people working essential jobs: police, firefighters, overnight doctors and nurses in the ER(Emergency Room). Have other professions figured out a better way to do this, a better way to schedule people to work the night shift?
Dr. CZEISLER: Well, that varies by profession. Certainly, the medical profession has not done so. They currently still schedule resident physicians to work 30-hour shifts twice a week. But change comes slowly in these areas, mainly because the environment has changed dramatically over the last 50 years, requiring people to stay continuously awake in jobs that they often were able to sleep at in times gone by, but the scheduling practices have not kept pace.
In addition, we are a sleep-deprived nation. Every week, nearly two million Americans nod off or fall asleep while driving their cars on the highways. And, you know, it's part of our 24/7 culture that we think that we should be able to burn the candle at both ends(操劳过度) without suffering any consequences, and at some point, the brain seizes control and we involuntarily make the transition from wakefulness to sleep, even at very inappropriate circumstances.
KELLY: One of the things that appears to have been ruled out in trying to tackle this is naps. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said this week, and I'm quoting him: "On my watch, controllers will not be paid to take naps." Is that a good approach? Could naps be helpful, in your view?
Dr. CZEISLER: It's a very common approach, although it's kind of ironic. Controllers are allowed to eat while they're being paid. They are allowed to smoke cigarettes while they're being paid during a break. But they're not allowed to do the one thing that would help prepare them for work when they're on break, which would be to take a brief nap.
KELLY: And in your view, would that help?
Dr. CZEISLER: Studies done by NASA for the FAA in relationship to pilots have shown that a brief, 20-minute nap greatly increases the ability to sustain alertness during the remainder of a flight. And yet, FAA regulations do not allow pilots to nap in the cockpit(座舱). So on one out of 10 trans-Atlantic flights, the pilots are nodding off in the cockpit, but it's not scheduled or controlled in any way. It would be far better to recognize that it's going to happen, to schedule it and to ensure that it doesn't happen at unscheduled times than to simply ban it and pretend that it's going to go away.
KELLY: Charles Czeisler is director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Czeisler, thanks very much.
Dr. CZEISLER: Thank you.
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美国空管部门屡生险情
4月16日清晨5时，一名负责来往大西洋和加勒比海间航班起降的美国佛罗里达州迈阿密机场空中交通管理员再次发生打瞌睡事故，所幸未造成不堪设想的严重后果。美国联邦航空局随即宣布将对空中交通管理工作实施重大改进措施。
这是今年以来第七起美国机场因空中交通管理员打瞌睡而发生的险情。今年3月23日，美国首都华盛顿里根国家机场一名空管员值夜班时打瞌睡，导致两架准备着陆的客机无法与塔台取得联系，只能自行着陆。事发后美国公众惊出一身冷汗——里根国家机场距美国国会、白宫等地仅有数公里之遥。此后，美国内华达、西雅图等地接连发生类似“打瞌睡”事故。在强大的公众压力下，美国联邦航空局负责空中交通管理的首席运营官克拉科夫斯基4月14日宣布辞职。美国联邦航空局也已下令全美27个在夜间只有1名空管人员值班的机场立刻增加值班人员。
据悉，美国各地机场空中交通管理人员疲劳现象极为严重。美国联邦航空局和美国全国空管人员协会联手进行的一项最新调查表明，“连轴转”的工作安排使得美国机场空中交通管理人员普遍感到疲劳。令人最感疲劳的班次安排是上完一周大夜班（晚10时至早6时）后，接着上一周早班（早6时至下午2时），随后再上一周中班（下午2时至晚10时）。有些空管人员还常常被安排下午2时下班后，晚上10时接着上班。美国联邦航空局负责培训空管人员的教官珀尔说：“这种工作安排使得空管人员无法及时调整作息，睡眠不足已经成为一个长期存在的普遍问题。”
此前，美国联邦航空局规定，禁止在工作期间打瞌睡，即使在休息时也不能打盹，违反者将被解职。但这项规定早已名存实亡，究其原因，在空中交通管理人员普遍疲劳的情形下，不少主管人员对“打瞌睡”现象睁一只眼闭一只眼。此外，美国各地机场塔台空管中心办公室虽然很大，空管人员的个人工作间则相对隔离，使得空管人员有可能在无人注意的情形下打瞌睡。另外，鉴于一名空管人员可以同时操控两台雷达装置，有的机场甚至出现空管人员间达成轮班打瞌睡的默契。
4月16日在迈阿密机场打瞌睡的空管人员已被停职。当日，美国联邦航空局局长巴比特发表声明。他说，该局将在72小时内为改变美国空中交通管理员疲劳现象采取重大改进措施，但这仅仅是“改进工作的开始”。4月18日，巴比特将与美国全国空管人员协会主席里纳尔蒂前往亚特兰大机场听取改进工作意见。
此间有媒体报道称，鉴于德国、日本等国均在机场塔台空管办公室内备有专供空中交通管理人员休息的房间，美国联邦航空局的“改进措施”中可能包括允许空管人员在上大夜班期间睡觉两个半小时。此外，该局还将重新制定培训计划，以确保新的空中交通管理人员从一开始就掌握必备的技能和树立严格遵守各项纪律的意识。
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