Empirical study of psychological stress protection training for the flight over sea

Abstract

Objective To study the practical effect of psychological stress protection training on the pilots in over sea fight missions, and to provide pilots with feasible techniques and training methods for the flight over sea. Methods Forty pilots who performed the flight missions over sea were chosen as the research objects. Their physiological and objective indexes, including heart rate variability (HRV), EEG, self-rated scale of stress degree were collected within half an hour after the flight mission. Then, 30-min psychological stress protection training was carried out. The above indicators were collected again as the training finished. The physiological indexes were compared between the states of pilots before and after psychological stress protection training to assess the training effectiveness. Similar comparison was done between the states of pilots before and after psychological stress protection training in over sea flight simulation. Results ①The HRV analysis in time domain indicated that the percentage of mormal adjacent NN interval difference >50 ms (PNN50) of pilots after psychological stress protection training was significantly higher than that before training(t=2.198, P<0.05). ②The HRV analysis in frequency domain indicated that the normalized HF (HFnorm) of pilots after psychological stress protection training was significantly higher than that before training (t=7.102, P<0.01), the normalized LF(LFnorm) of pilots after psychological stress protection training was significantly lower than that before training (t=7.102, P<0.01). ③The EEG analysis showed that α wave index of pilots after psychological stress protection training was significantly higher than that before training(t=3.909, P<0.01), but β wave index was significantly lower (t=2.966, P<0.01). ④As compared with the data from flight simulation task the values of standard deviations of all NN intervals (SDNN), standard deviation of successive difference between adjacent NN intervals and very low frequency were significantly lower before stress protection training (t=3.149, 2.266, 2.471, P<0.01 or 0.05). β wave index was significantly increased (t=5.067, P<0.01). SDNN, β wave indexes and HFnorm of pilots were significantly increased by stress protection training (t=2.621, 3.062, 4.757, P<0.05 or 0.01) while LFnorm significantly decreased (t=2.621, P<0.05). ⑤The self-rated scale of stress degree of pilots were significantly decreased by the training (t=7.833, P<0.01). Conclusions Psychological stress protection training is an effective way for the pilots performing over sea flight missions. Key words: Stress, psychological; Heart rate; Questionnaires; Training