4 ms·
My intuition is that, in addition to what you mentioned and at least for longer flights, some people have residual effects from the mild hypoxia at altitude whe
by mcronce 3y ago
My intuition is that, in addition to what you mentioned and at least for longer flights, some people have residual effects from the mild hypoxia at altitude when they're on the ground in their destination airport.
I, at least, sure as hell feel dumber for the rest of the day after a six hour flight. Usually that's accompanied by a fairly debilitating headache.
- permo-w 3y agoalcohol always seems to hit me harder on a plane, and afterwards
- mcronce 3y agoI can't drink during/before flights at all, it destroys me
- pc86 3y agoCommercial airline cabins are pressurized to at most 8k feet; there are no hypoxic effects at that altitude, at least not on decision-making. You don't need continuous oxygen on the flight deck until either 14 or 14.5k feet (in the US, EU might be slightly different). The FAA is dogmatic and wrong about a lot of things, but if there was even the slightest bit of evidence showing decreased decision-making or cognition at lower altitudes, they'd be requiring oxygen immediately, economic consequences be damned.
- hedgehog 3y agoYou can watch your blood oxygen dip when flying, I don't know how significant the effect is on performance but as a sea level dweller there seems to be some observable difference in the data.
- mtsr 3y agoToo much CO2 is known to lower IQ scores significantly, for the duration of exposure.