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Do pilots ever sleep?
I get very sleepy when its boring and wondered if pilots ever sleep, who takes over, how does auto pilot work, how long do you sleep, and if there’s a schedule or shift. #pilot
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John’s Answer
Really long flights of commercial airlines have provisions for sleeping. This is a fairly regimented thing. For some kinds of flying this is something that you have to be very careful of, because most planes have an autopilot and falling asleep when you are not supposed to can cause quite a problem.
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Elliot’s Answer
Depending on what type of operation, yes we are able to sleep during the flight. If we have 3 or 4 crew members we take turns going in the back bunk and sleeping if you can. This is usually only long haul flights that have multiple crew members. The auto pilot is on over 90 percent of the flight and we have to stay awake and monitor it and air traffic control. Let's say it's a 12 hour flight and there are 4 crew members, we each get about 5 hours of sleep or break. 1 hour on each side we are all in the cockpit for the critical phases of flight. If there are only 2 crew members then no,, we don't sleep, but they are usually shorter flights.. less than 8 hours. Rest is important before operating an aircraft. Hope this helps!