Narrative:

I reported for a continuous duty overnight (cdo) knowing that I was not properly adjusted to the time change involved with doing a cdo that could potentially keep me up all night. I had just completed a four day trip the previous day that finished a little after XA00 and with traffic got to my home a little after XC00. I made supper and went to bed at XF00. My normal sleep routine after a four day trip especially is to sleep for at least ten hours as I am usually tired from different sleep cycles required from my schedule. I slept for ten hours waking up without an alarm clock at XP00 the next day. Late in the afternoon I attempted to get some sleep in preparation for the cdo. I was unable to sleep. I was used to being up during the day from the four day trip. I showed up to work on time and felt comfortable performing my flight duties that evening provided the flight went as planned with no delays. We got to the hotel a little after midnight and I immediately tried to get to sleep. I was unable due to not having time to wind down after the flight and anxious about the early wake up the next morning and only having 6 hrs on the ground to get to the hotel; wind down; sleep; get up and ready and back to the airport. Due to these things I only got about one and a half hours of broken sleep. I showed up at the airport fatigued; and completed my flight fatigued. This is not a schedule that I bid on. I normally avoid cdos knowing that my internal clock does not adjust to them; especially after a four day trip immediately prior to the cdo. This event occurred because planning changed my schedule for integration and tacked on the cdo after my carry in trip as a way to make their schedule work the way they needed it to; not taking into account the human factors involved in trying to change a sleep pattern in a little over twenty four hours. You could also say that I felt pressure from the company not to call in fatigued because I had been told that the company was frustrated with the number of sick and fatigue calls it had been receiving after furloughs were announced. I did try to drop this pairing previous to reporting for it but it was denied due to lack of reserves. The company should take into account the human factors of changing the human body clock in short periods of time. Just because it's legal rest does not make it safe. It's difficult to change your sleep rhythm in two days off from 5 am shows to 2 pm shows which is done quite frequently. Almost impossible to switch to potentially up all night for a cdo especially after a four day.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain reported feeling fatigued flying the return on a continuous duty overnight assignment after flying a four-day sequence.

Narrative: I reported for a continuous duty overnight (CDO) knowing that I was not properly adjusted to the time change involved with doing a CDO that could potentially keep me up all night. I had just completed a four day trip the previous day that finished a little after XA00 and with traffic got to my home a little after XC00. I made supper and went to bed at XF00. My normal sleep routine after a four day trip especially is to sleep for at least ten hours as I am usually tired from different sleep cycles required from my schedule. I slept for ten hours waking up without an alarm clock at XP00 the next day. Late in the afternoon I attempted to get some sleep in preparation for the CDO. I was unable to sleep. I was used to being up during the day from the four day trip. I showed up to work on time and felt comfortable performing my flight duties that evening provided the flight went as planned with no delays. We got to the hotel a little after midnight and I immediately tried to get to sleep. I was unable due to not having time to wind down after the flight and anxious about the early wake up the next morning and only having 6 hrs on the ground to get to the hotel; wind down; sleep; get up and ready and back to the airport. Due to these things I only got about one and a half hours of broken sleep. I showed up at the airport fatigued; and completed my flight fatigued. This is not a schedule that I bid on. I normally avoid CDOs knowing that my internal clock does not adjust to them; especially after a four day trip immediately prior to the CDO. This event occurred because planning changed my schedule for integration and tacked on the CDO after my carry in trip as a way to make their schedule work the way they needed it to; not taking into account the human factors involved in trying to change a sleep pattern in a little over twenty four hours. You could also say that I felt pressure from the company not to call in fatigued because I had been told that the company was frustrated with the number of sick and fatigue calls it had been receiving after furloughs were announced. I did try to drop this pairing previous to reporting for it but it was denied due to lack of reserves. The company should take into account the human factors of changing the human body clock in short periods of time. Just because it's legal rest does not make it safe. It's difficult to change your sleep rhythm in two days off from 5 am shows to 2 pm shows which is done quite frequently. Almost impossible to switch to potentially up all night for a CDO especially after a four day.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.