A B737 captain reported extreme fatigue during the second duty period in twenty-four hours beginning...

Narrative:

Once again I was assigned to fly a double duty period in a 24 hour period. I slept for 9 hours prior to my coast to coast flight that departed before mid-morning. After flying approximately 4 hrs to our destination; we are now released and sent to the hotel to try and get rest for our red eye flight. As always; I was unable to rest after I arrived to the hotel; because I was rested from the night before. I laid down several times to try and rest but was unsuccessful. Late afternoon; I self medicated myself to try and sleep for at least a few hours. The alarm went off at a couple of hours before midnight local time. I slept for about 3 hours prior to show time.during the flight I felt extremely fatigued as did the first officer. I found myself nodding off many times during the flight. I was definitely feeling the effects of fatigue. I feel really guilty calling in fatigue as the company does not have the staffing to cover this flight and the passengers will be affected negatively. This practice has to stop before an accident occurs.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 Captain reported extreme fatigue during the second duty period in twenty-four hours beginning with an AM transcontinental flight; attempting mid PM rest and finally flying an all night period.

Narrative: Once again I was assigned to fly a double duty period in a 24 hour period. I slept for 9 hours prior to my coast to coast flight that departed before mid-morning. After flying approximately 4 hrs to our destination; we are now released and sent to the hotel to try and get rest for our red eye flight. As always; I was unable to rest after I arrived to the hotel; because I was rested from the night before. I laid down several times to try and rest but was unsuccessful. Late afternoon; I self medicated myself to try and sleep for at least a few hours. The alarm went off at a couple of hours before midnight local time. I slept for about 3 hours prior to show time.During the flight I felt extremely fatigued as did the First Officer. I found myself nodding off many times during the flight. I was definitely feeling the effects of fatigue. I feel really guilty calling in fatigue as the company does not have the staffing to cover this flight and the passengers will be affected negatively. This practice has to stop before an accident occurs.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1196253
Time
Date	201408
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown

A B737 captain reported extreme fatigue during the second duty period in twenty-four hours beginning with an am transcontinental flight; attempting mid pm rest and finally flying an all night period.