– Using your leg muscles by cycling, swimming, jogging or walking quickly increases heart rate. 

– The time at which physical exercise is taken affects the quality of the awakening and the sleep during the following night. 

– It is essential not to tire yourself out by intense physical exercise before a flight, especially for evening or night flights. 

– During night flight, light or moderate physical exercise (walking, various movements) attenuates the negative effects of sleep loss by increasing wakefulness level and reducing fatigue. 

– Abnormally intense physical exercise during the afternoon leads to stress which reduces deep slow-wave sleep during the following night in sedentary subjects and increases it in sportsmen. 

– When physical effort is moderate and exerted not too late in the day, fatigue and drowsiness are higher in the evening and sleep is of good quality. 

– In order to facilitate adaptation during long layovers, take advantage of daylight exposure periods to undertake light (walking) or moderate physical exercise.

6.6.6.  PHARMACOLOGICAL MEASURES

6.6.6.1. SOPORIFIC DRUGS

Soporific drugs come mainly from two classes of psychotropes: benzodiazepines and barbiturates.
Effects
. Sedative

. Hypnotic

. Anxiolytic

. Muscle-relaxant

Effects on sleep
. Increase in Stages 1 and 2

. Reduction in Stages 3 and 4

. Reduction in REM sleep

Secondary effects
. Memory disorders

. Reduction in attention

. Increase in nightmares

. Residual sedation upon awakening leading to a reduction in intellectual and psychomotor efficiency

. Feeling of weariness

. Empty-headedness

. Increase in reaction time

. Motor in-coordination

. Confusion

. Sickness

. Dizziness

. Headaches

. Withdrawal symptoms at the end of long treatment or after high hypnotic doses: insomnia, irritability, anxiety, fits of panic, trembling, and palpitations. 

6.6.6.2. PSYCHOSTIMULATING DRUGS

Distinctions can be made between three families of psycho-stimulating drugs: amphetamine substances, xanthine derivatives (caffeine, theophylline, theobromine), synthetic psycho-stimulating drugs.
Aims
. Prolonged wakefulness

. Without behavioural modifications

. Without performance deficiencies

Amphetamines: primary effects
. Increase in general arousal tonicity

. Euphoria

. Increase in psychomotor performance

Secondary effects
. Signs of anxiety

. Tendency to social isolation

. Aggravation of paranoiac signs

. Trouble with visual perception

. Anorexia

. Increase in heart rate 
　
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