Narrative:

I misjudged my level of rest and awareness. Approximately one and one half hours into the flight I woke up; completely unaware that I had fallen asleep. When I looked at the time I became aware that I had been asleep no more than about five minutes. My first officer had also briefly dozed off. No calls were missed; I checked. The day before I had completed a 'red-eye' flight late at night. Tried to stay awake at the hotel since my next day was to be a late-night departure and 'red-eye' return the following morning. I went to sleep early in the morning hours. I was woken up early in the morning when someone knocked on my door. I couldn't get back to sleep that day; tried twice. We reported for duty to find our inbound aircraft had been delayed by weather. When we departed neither one of us felt fatigued; we discussed it. The first leg was uneventful. We quick-turned and even discussed our level of alertness. Yes we were tired; but not noticeably any more than any other 'red-eye'. I had already been penalized hours the previous week for calling fatigued and I couldn't afford to lose any more time; as would have happened if I'd called fatigued again. So I pushed on when I probably should not have; but that's the way the schedules are built. You either fly them that way or you don't get paid. That's that! Schedules being legally constructed doesn't mean they are safe. Reversing circadian rhythms doesn't allow you to get adequate rest. Back-to-back 'red-eyes' are a bad idea. And; finally; punishing a pilot financially for calling in fatigue is poor policy.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier Captain reported falling asleep in cruise flight due to extreme fatigue. Reporter alleged his schedules are unsafe; with back-to-back red-eye flights. He reported being docked pay recently for refusing a trip for fatigue reasons.

Narrative: I misjudged my level of rest and awareness. Approximately one and one half hours into the flight I woke up; completely unaware that I had fallen asleep. When I looked at the time I became aware that I had been asleep no more than about five minutes. My First Officer had also briefly dozed off. No calls were missed; I checked. The day before I had completed a 'red-eye' flight late at night. Tried to stay awake at the hotel since my next day was to be a late-night departure and 'red-eye' return the following morning. I went to sleep early in the morning hours. I was woken up early in the morning when someone knocked on my door. I couldn't get back to sleep that day; tried twice. We reported for duty to find our inbound aircraft had been delayed by weather. When we departed neither one of us felt fatigued; we discussed it. The first leg was uneventful. We quick-turned and even discussed our level of alertness. Yes we were tired; but not noticeably any more than any other 'red-eye'. I had already been penalized hours the previous week for calling fatigued and I couldn't afford to lose any more time; as would have happened if I'd called fatigued again. So I pushed on when I probably should not have; but that's the way the schedules are built. You either fly them that way or you don't get paid. That's that! Schedules being legally constructed doesn't mean they are safe. Reversing circadian rhythms doesn't allow you to get adequate rest. Back-to-back 'red-eyes' are a BAD idea. And; finally; punishing a pilot financially for calling in fatigue is poor policy.

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.