How Flying Seriously Messes With Your Mind and Body (bbc.com) 264
dryriver writes: BBC Future has an interesting piece about how traveling in an airliner does strange things to people's minds and bodies, such as far more people starting to cry while watching even mildly emotional movies on airplanes than what is normal, some passengers experiencing decreases in acuity of sight, taste and smell (airline meals are over-seasoned to compensate for this), unusual tiredness or desire to sleep, your skin drying out by up to 37% percent and possibly becoming itchy, and some people breaking wind far more often than they normally would. Here is an excerpt form the report: "There can be no doubt that aircraft cabins are peculiar places for humans to be. They are a weird environment where the air pressure is similar to that atop an 8,000ft-high (2.4km) mountain. The humidity is lower than in some of the world's driest deserts while the air pumped into the cabin is cooled as low as 10C (50F) to whisk away the excess heat generated by all the bodies and electronics onboard. The reduced air pressure on airline flights can reduce the amount of oxygen in passengers' blood between 6 and 25%, a drop that in hospital would lead many doctors to administer supplementary oxygen. There are some studies, however, that show even relatively mild levels of hypoxia (deficiency in oxygen) can alter our ability to think clearly. At oxygen levels equivalent to altitudes above 12,000ft (3.6km), healthy adults can start to show measurable changes in their memory, their ability to perform calculations and make decisions. This is why the aviation regulations insist that pilots must wear supplementary oxygen if the cabin air pressure is greater than 12,500ft. A study in 2007 showed that after about three hours at the altitudes found in airline cabins, people start to complain about feeling uncomfortable."
I joined the /. mile high club the other day (Score:3, Funny)
It means a woman was sitting next to me by the window seat, we made sporadic awkward and stilted conversation during our meal, and she left halfway through claiming she had to powder her nose but never came back.
At least now I can claim it was mild hypoxia on both our parts. Usually it would only apply to my bits.
Re: I joined the /. mile high club the other day (Score:2, Funny)
I don't think you understand what the Mile High Club is about.
Re: I joined the /. mile high club the other day (Score:5, Funny)
As he said, this is the Slashdot Mile High Club.
Oral sex in the /. Mile High Club is when you notice your seatmate is using a Windows laptop and you helpfully start berating them about using Macro$haft Winblowze, she says 'F@#$ you', you reply with 'F$#% you, you filthy vagina haver', and then one of you has your seat changed in the afterglow.
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The /. Mile High Club is the people who have gotten first post while on a plane.
AALS (Score:4, Informative)
Altitude Adjusted Lachrymosity Syndrome. It's a thing. First mentioned on the BBC's premier film programme (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lvdrj/episodes/downloads [bbc.co.uk]) and detailed in their Witterpedia, http://witterpedia.net/wiki/index.php?title=AALS [witterpedia.net].
Re:AALS (Score:5, Insightful)
How about "going away from family and friends and the familiar, perhaps for an extended period, causes sadness easily triggered to tears by a mildly sad moment in a movie syndrome"?
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Yeah... you're going to make that a lot shorter if you want it to become a thing that can be acronymized.
Re:AALS (Score:5, Insightful)
How about "going away from family and friends and the familiar, perhaps for an extended period, causes sadness easily triggered to tears by a mildly sad moment in a movie syndrome"?
What makes you think all people are flying away from their families? I would suggest that close to half of people are flying towards their home family and friends.
Re:AALS (Score:4, Funny)
How about "going away from family and friends and the familiar, perhaps for an extended period, causes sadness easily triggered to tears by a mildly sad moment in a movie syndrome"?
What makes you think all people are flying away from their families? I would suggest that close to half of people are flying towards their home family and friends.
Oh, that other half gets depressed at the idea of getting back with the family and friends and stress created by maintaining the facade, known as the bonfire of the vanities syndrome.
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after waiting in line and being groped by other strangers"?
Prostitution is illegal where I live. What choice do I have but to pay the TSA? I find that if I go through security three or four times on the same ticket, they give me extra service! Sometimes they even upgrade me to a private room where I feel a little less self conscious. Buying a plane ticket is much less expensive than getting bailed out of jail as a John.
It's not about a sad moment. (Score:2)
Mildly or otherwise.
It is most probably reacting to generally emotionally charged scenes.
From a comedy where all goes well in the end to the scene in an action movie where the hero is triumphant.
With a tendency towards crying at happy moments. [thisamericanlife.org]
My guess... based on personal experience, and not even related to airplanes...
It's something related to low blood pressure and how that relates to oxygenation of the brain... and empathy.
Cause basically... people who cry at those emotional scenes are empathizing with t
Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:5, Informative)
The Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 supposedly feature improvements in cabin air pressure, with pressurization to 6000 feet equivalent, as well as increases in humidity.
Unfortunately, they still aren't that common.
Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:4, Insightful)
Can confirm, I've flown on both multiple times and the difference from the old aircraft is dramatic. Your ears don't get painful and pop, the atmosphere is much nicer and you can sleep a lot easier. At the end of a 12 hour flight you feel much better than you did coming off the old aircraft.
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Lufthansa and Emirates A380's seem to have the same type of climate control systems as the A350 and the B787, because they feel far more comfortable than other planes I've flown with.
Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:5, Interesting)
The Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 supposedly feature improvements in cabin air pressure, with pressurization to 6000 feet equivalent, as well as increases in humidity.
Unfortunately, they still aren't that common.
Not sure about the A350, but the 787's composite fuselage allows for higher humidity, too.
Water and aluminum equals corrosion, so aluminum airliners fly with extremely dry cabin air because the cold outside would cause condensation on the aluminum, leading to corrosion and planes falling apart much faster.
Which isn't a good thing.
But composites apparently aren't (as?) susceptible to water-caused corrosion (or degradation), and I bet they don't conduct heat was well so there's less condensation in the first place.
Higher humidity means less impact on the mostly-water meatbags inside the sardine can.
Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:5, Interesting)
Years (Christ, decades!) ago I was an engineer at Boeing and we looked into some report that said something like "people experience nosebleeds on aircraft 840% more often" and we talked to doctors who traced it to low humidity in the cabins. We designed a humidifying system (corrosion wasn't a problem, but the duct work had some ordinary steel components that needed to either be replaced or they would rust quickly). The system design predicted a system weight of about 200 pounds, and management figured no one would want it so they killed the project there. They were probably right; American was ordering planes with a brushed aluminum finish because they didn't want the weight of the paint on the aircraft.
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They fill the tyres with nitrogen because it's inert and in certain temperatures oxygen degrades rubber far more rapidly.
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The lower humidity is simply to save money. They bleed air off the third or fourth stage ring of the jet engine to pressurize the cabin. When the dry upper atmospheric air is compressed it produces extremely dry air for the cabin. They use humidifiers to add water vapor. To save cost to carry less water. 20 gallons of water more = 75 kg more = 1 f
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If it is possible to supply extra humidity only to targeted passengers, then they would be interested in the idea. 20$ more for extra humidity seats.
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There are airplane graveyards in the New Mexico deserts. The location were chosen specifically because of the dry air.
"Pure" aluminum doesn't corrode after the first layer of oxide is laid down if the water is acid free.
Airplanes don't use pure aluminum, since it is way to weak.
Water is rarely neutral or salt free coming from the atmosphere.
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Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:5, Informative)
Both aluminum and steel are corroded by water. In fact, aluminum ions are more soluble in water than iron ions. The difference, however, is that iron oxides do not stick to the parent iron substrate and flake off, ever exposing new iron surface for corrosion. Aluminum on the other hand forms alumina (aluminum oxide, corundum), which is insoluble in water, has a very high hardness, and sticks strongly to the parent substrate, thus forming an inert layer all over the aluminum and preventing further corrosion. This is why aluminum roofs and siding works, without the aluminum dissolving in the rain water despite the very high solubility.
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I call it "automated alu-protect" for short. Patent pending.
Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:4, Informative)
Unless you add some copper to the alloy to increase its strength. You might name such an alloy 2024 or 7071, and you might use it all over the place in airplane construction.
Re:Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 (Score:5, Informative)
Steel corrosion is called rust, and rust is both water soluble and hydrophilic (it attracts water). Once a steel part starts rusting, the corrosion rate tends to increase, so we are very familiar with the process.
Aluminum corrosion is a white powder that is not soluble and is hydrophobic (it repels water). Normally, the aluminum will corrode, producing a layer that will protect the rest of it. However, aircraft aluminum is typically 2024 or 7071 allow. Both alloys contain a lot of copper, which makes the allow much stronger but allows for a inter granular galvanic reaction. The corrosion is able to seep deeper into the metal by going between the granuals. They are so susceptible to corrosion that they come with an "alclad" layer which it a skin of pure aluminum about .001 thick.
Some designs, such as the Zenith Zodiac I built, are engineer for 6061 aluminum. While not as strong as the other two mentioned, it does not suffer from the inter granular corrosion. In order to save weight (a light aircraft paint job usually costs about 25lbs), many builder will polish the bare aluminum to a mirror sheen instead of painting it.
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I've been looking forward to those. I live at 7100 feet, in the southwestern desert. I'd like to ride on an airplane that's more comfortable than being at home.
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I have flown 2-3 times a year between Copenhagen and the US on the 787, and it was a very pleasant experience. I have managed to sleep on the entire flight after dinner and only woke up twice to sip a bit of water. But it was on their premium seats where you can put the seat much more horizontal and there's a foot rest as well. I have never been able to sleep on a plane before. It was quite strange/depressing to go to sleep after taking of in the warm weather and then waking up in show in Copenhagen, but I
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Flown in 787 recently, Sydney to LA. It was different, I actually didnâ(TM)t think it was the greatest flight Iâ(TM)ve ever been on but that may be perhaps Iâ(TM)ve just adapted to the normal pressure and air quality.
That flight certainly messed up your keyboard, Seriously Slashdot fix this shit. How are you literally the one and only site I've ever come across that can't figure out text? I bet it would be fixed under Windows.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Obviously (Score:5, Funny)
Tomato juice pro tip! (Score:5, Interesting)
For those that didn't RTFA, it seems tomato juice tastes much better on a plane. I fly a lot and can say almost every airline also carries spicy tomato juice for bloody marys too.
My wife just asked me the other day why I always get tomato juice on a plane but not at home. Thank goodness for slashdot in helping me become more self-aware.
Re:Tomato juice pro tip! (Score:5, Interesting)
On a plane, you sweat a lot because of the lower air pressure, but don't notice it. It's important to drink a lot of water to keep hydrated, but it's also important to replenish the salt that drinking all that water washes out of your systems. The spicy tomato juice cans have about 50% of your RDA of salt and are great for avoiding headaches after a long flight.
Oh, and gin and tonic is one of the few alcoholic beverages that tastes better at low air pressure.
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How does it compare to Brawndo? Brawndo is pretty good on planes too.
It's got electrolytes.
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For those that didn't RTFA, it seems tomato juice tastes much better on a plane. I fly a lot and can say almost every airline also carries spicy tomato juice for bloody marys too.
That's because your taste receptors become less sensitive. The food they serve on planes is typically seasoned more heavily than normal because people's ability to taste is reduced. Therefore it's not surprising that your perception of tomato juice might be different on a plane than on the ground because it's typically quite salty.
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It is the other way round for me. The same (Lufthansa uses a pretty common brand) tomato juice tastes somewhat more salty at the cruising altitude than on the ground.
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Hah, I'm the same: always drinking tomato juice on planes, and never anywhere else. Glad to know I'm not the only one ;-)
Anyway, I'm sure being stuck in one position, with no space for your legs, and possibly next to people you really don't care about, is surely also a factor in any sensation of discomfort one might have... When I stand up after a long flight, it is not because I want to get off the plane urgently, but simply because I cannot stand sitting anymore.
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Hmmm...Jim never has a second cup of coffee at home.
Re:Tomato juice pro tip! (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmm... Jim never vomits at home.
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Re:Tomato juice pro tip! (Score:5, Informative)
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The only juice made from fruit is "fruit" juice. Juice is made from all sorts of things. Carrot juice, celery juice, cucumber juice, all quite common. Often taken in combination too with leafy items such as kale, or herbs and spices.
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That's disgusting.
I take mine with relish and mustard.
"aircraft cabins are peculiar places for humans" (Score:2)
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there are lots of common peculiar places for humans
Agreed. 100 years ago a peculiar place for a human would have been hurtling 70MPH down a freeway, surrounded by 10,000 other humans doing the same thing.
Today, humans are so ignorantly comfortable with that environment that they often read, smoke, eat, drink, and apply makeup while attempting to steer 2,000 pounds of steel down said freeway, trying not to run into the other 10,000 humans around them doing the same thing.
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Cars of 100 years ago were much less comfortable than cars available today.
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Dear lordy lord, if only I could find a steel car which only weighed 2,000 lb. Someone tried to get me to buy an Opel GT once, but I couldn't actually fit in it. I wasn't even fat yet, I'm just too damned tall.
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not 2000 lbs, averaging 4000 lbs (as of 2010).
Ah yes, I forgot to calculate our overt addiction with buying never-go-offroad vehicles large enough to be considered military battlefield transport. I stand corrected.
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not 2000 lbs, averaging 4000 lbs (as of 2010).
Ah yes, I forgot to calculate our overt addiction with buying never-go-offroad vehicles large enough to be considered military battlefield transport. I stand corrected.
GP Is American. He was referring to passenger weight.
I kid, I kid. We're not all in the Gulf states.
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Moist modern sedans weigh this easy
Yes, but what about their dry weight?
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Just things like a steel structure that will keep you from getting killed in an accident. They are also physically much larger than your old Corolla.
This Story Brought to You By... (Score:2)
Hyperloop....
Yeah! Airplans sucks!
Regards,
Elon
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Hyperloop....Yeah! Airplans sucks!
Likely to have the same issues.
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Airline meals? (Score:2)
Re: Airline meals? (Score:2)
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Do people only fly domestic in your country?
Perfect Timing (Score:2)
There are other symptoms, too... (Score:5, Funny)
From where I live, the flight to Las Vegas is fairly long. Dehydration leads to raging thirst, and oxygen deprivation cripples my cerebral cortex so badly I usually wind up allowing the small auxiliary brain located just below my belt buckle to do most of the decision making.
Unfortunately, abstinence and virtuous behaviour are not exactly its strong suit.
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Yes - drinking on a flight to Vegas, then landing and continuing to drink, has led to some of the most black-out drunk periods of my life. Now I have a technical explanation for why!
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Unfortunately, abstinence and virtuous behaviour are not exactly its strong suit.
Nor are they welcome in Vegas.
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Why advertise the auxiliary brain is small?
Truth in advertising laws required him to disclose the actual size of the unit.
Since we are all Nerds... (Score:2)
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But "metric first" implies there is another system of measurement...
A True Elder Nerd would not (Score:2)
since all of the elder nerds would be able to convert measurements on the fly.
heck in this case divide feet by 3 and call it meters would work good enough.
Not only an airplane cabin (Score:2)
This description of the airplane cabin seems to have a lot in common with my current workplace.
That explains SkyMall (Score:2)
Well, that explains why the SkyMall gets any business: Hypoxia-induced purchases of stupid things.
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But Skymall went bankrupt in 2015.
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Plus the contribution from the airlines (Score:2)
On The Physics? (Score:5, Interesting)
With the caveat that I don't know what I'm talking about [ ! ] the article got me thinking about the way that our senses operate differently at altitude. Essentially, this means, "at a significantly different atmospheric pressure"... So obviously the first thin to think about is : what, exactly, is that pressure difference? Well, according to this calculator, at mide.com,
https://www.mide.com/pages/air... [mide.com]
A "typical" air pressure at sea level might be 101.325kPa[kiloPascals], in which case the corresponding air pressure at 8,000ft would be approximately 75,250 kPa - which is approximately 75% of sea level pressure. OK, for a "starting point", I'd hope we'd agree that this delta is sufficient for physical and chemical reactions to be potentially altered.
Then I got to thinking about passengers from a physiological perspective. Essentially, the human being is a mass of semi-permiable membranes. Yes, there is plenty of chemistry going on within us - turning foods into energy, for example - but it also stands to reason that our 5 senses are going to be quite sensitive to changes in pressure... For example - a reduced atmospheric pressure will mean that inhalations bring fewer air molecules in to our lungs, which would also surely involve changes in our sense of smell. OK, I don't know how pressure differential would impact the dispersal of scent chemicals in a gas mix, but there is likely to be a difference...
Our sense of taste is going to be based on diffusion and/or osmosis, as the chemical trace signatures of what we eat are absorbed and processed by the cells in our taste buds. But of course the actual mechanics of tasting are going to be based on chemicals being transferred into saliva and then offered up to the taste processing centres on our tongues. Whether the underlying processes are osmosis or diffusion, or a mix or variation is almost secondary to the point that there will be something like this underpinning the necessary chemistry that drives the sense of taste. Mess with partial pressures, absorption rates, osmosis or diffusion rates and it rather makes sense.
If we were sensitive enough, we might even expect to witness a very slight change in the sense of touch... Just as we know that limbs can swell in low pressure, so sub-cutaneous blood capillaries are going to change and this should impact our touch. Would sight be impacted? Perhaps, if the lower atmospheric pressure caused a slight outward swelling of our eyes?
The thing that really interests me, though is the comment from TheRaven64, where they observe that Gin & Tonic is "one of the few alcoholic beverages that tastes better at low air pressure." Describing something as "tasting better" is way too subjective for us to be likely to reach a consensus upon, but the observation of the change, alone, might be enough to suggest that there could be ways of compensating for altitude-related changes to our senses by altering the composition or chemistry of what we eat...
Lastly - just as a final thought - I wonder if gravity [or the absence of it] plays a part in our senses too? OK, so the reduction in the gravity we experience between sea level and 40,000ft might not be enough of a difference, but we could theoretically extrapolate by looking at feedback from astronauts as to whether ultra-low gravity environments impact their senses... I'd be very interested to know if we've got any readers who can better explain the relationship between the change in what we sense during a flight and the environmental impact on our physiology - I've just been guessing in this post, but suspect there's some pretty interesting material here somewhere...
Seriously (Score:5, Funny)
How Flying Seriously Messes With Your Mind and Body
In that case, instead of flying seriously, try flying frivolously.
I thought I had gone *emo* (Score:3)
I was crying not because of the inflight movie, I was crying because of all the movies to choose from they *HAD* to pick Sisters of the Traveling Pants!
I wept because it was a 20-hour flight to Manila, from Houston. And I bought a round trip ticket, which meant I was going to watch it THREE MORE TIMES!!
No One Mentioned ... (Score:2)
The Brat From Hell kicking the back of your airline seat.
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Flying Seriously messes with ... (Score:2)
Ban airtravel, boycott Boeing! (Score:2)
The multi-billion corporations want you to travel by air, however damaging it is — or may [earthopensource.org] be — to your health and that of the planet [nytimes.com]. Oh, you say, it is a traveler's choice? No, it is not — though it was once an option, is now a necessity [kk.org].
Bad for you, bad for the planet, bad for mom-and-pop operated vacation spots [dailylocal.com]. Let's ban airtravel and boycott Boeing for enabling it!
Sound too (Score:2)
The 787 is better, but other aircraft can be extremely noisy. Listening to that for 10 hours straight can really mess you up. Those who can afford them buy Bose noise cancellation headphones, but even cheaper Sony or Colby ones will work too at a push. Worse case, slip in some foam earplugs.
Who knew high altitude was such a big deal? (Score:3)
“There hasn’t been much research done on this in the past as for healthy people these do not pose much of a problem,” says . . .
You're kidding me, right? The national air forces of the world have been sending people up for extended patrols for something like 8 or 9 decades and there "hasn’t been much research done" to study personnel performance reduction as a function of time, altitude, air pressure, oxygen, etc?
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The FAA (and I presume other aviation authorities) have even implemented specific rules to govern how high you may fly and for how long before needing supplemental oxygen. One would think they had spent a few moments looking into it before just writing the rules.
Flat Landers. (Score:2)
Just a guess none of the posters live in the Mountain West.
8000 Feet? I climb higher than that just to fly fish!
Pretty sure no one from Denver or Colorado Springs has a problem.
That explains a lot. (Score:2)
Like why people are willing to spend stupid money on stupid products advertised in the airline magazines. Sharper Image probably wouldn't exist without the extra stupid provided by low oxygen concentrations on airplanes.
I suffer this (Score:2)
I take blood pressure pills to give my kidney an easier time. When I fly, I wait till I get off the plane before I take the pill.
Because if I take it before I get off the plane, I feint. Airplane almost diverted one time.
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Flying is terrible... use the HyperLoop.
Likely to have the same issues.
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How many pascal is 12,500 ft?
Assuming that pressure at sea level is 101325 Pascal and temperature is 15 degrees Celsius: 63182 Pascal.
Re:What unit now, BeauHD? (Score:5, Funny)
What do you mean? Regular pascal or turbo-pascal?
Re:Mouth went numb (Score:5, Interesting)
I stupidly went diving once when I had a bit of a cold, got really nasty squeeze in my palate at the top of my mouth when ascending. I lost my taste for about 2 months afterwards as a result, even eating chocolate basically just felt like having mud in my mouth.
I now take the "Don't dive even if you have a minor cold" thing seriously now, as no doctor could help, and I genuinely was beginning to wonder if I'd lost the sense of taste for good.
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Think of the children?!?! They're one of the things that make flying suck!
Has it ever occurred to you how amazing it is that we were able to figure out how to engineer a gigantic metal bird that can transport large amounts of people to remote areas of the earth in a relatively short period of time? Is it amazing to you that flying is actually safer than driving? Is it amazing to you that this has enabled families to live in remote locations from each other and still be able to visit each other. It is truly REMARKABLE! And yet, here you are, complaining about something that is
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When did we start measuring air pressure in feet?
About the time that altitude-based pressure differences became a health concern.
Yes, this is news for nerds; I think you're looking for news for pedants.