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How to Sleep Better on a Plane
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To sleep, perchance to dream away your entire flight.
The very best flights are those which are spent entirely asleep.
Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to fall asleep while stuffed into a small seat, sitting upright. There are ways, however, to increase your chance of Zzzzs. Some of them are no-brainers, such as abstaining from caffeine during the flight. Duh! Others are less obvious.
Make Flying a Drowsing Success is a wonderfully helpful Los Angeles Times article by Logan Kugler, which spells out the best recipe for sleeping at 35,000 feet. Most of the suggestions I've heard before but there were a couple of new ones which I found very interesting. For example, Kugler recommends eating a banana which is packed full of melatonin, serotonin, and magnesium--apparently all good things to help you sleep.
The most interesting tip I learned, however, is about the small window of time when sleep will come most easily. Apparently during takeoff the cabin experiences increased G-forces and decreased oxygen levels, giving your body a one-two punch of sleepiness. I've dozed off many times during this short window and just assumed I was tired from the trek to the airport. Now I know there is a scientific reason for doing so, you can bet I'm going to take advantage of this window every time I get on a plane now. Thanks Kugler!
Filed under: Airlines
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KT May 19th 2009 2:27PM
Nothing works better than the Sunset Cocktail...Champagne & Zopoclone...Be kind to your fellow passengers and don't sit in the passeneger seat.
Justin Glow Apr 19th 2007 11:30AM
best. picture. ever.
Darkle Dagbar Apr 20th 2007 2:02PM
I've done some long distance flights. My first one took me from Cork to Shannon to London, on to Singapore and then arriving in Christchurch some thirty six hours later.
My second was almost the same in reverse with a small stop in the Gulf( Sydney-Singapore-Bahrain-London-Cork ) That was about thirty three hours I believe.
For my first flight I stayed awake, mostly. I may have dozed a few times, getting at most an hours sleep total, but over all I stayed awake. It was easy because I found a few travellers on the way to Singapore who also did not want to sleep.
On my return flight ten months later I had no such luck with company. I decided that I could stay awake with movies and caffeine. after my fourth cup of coffee the Flight attendant was looking a little worried. "More coffee?" She enquired.
I found this flight to be one of my most uncomfortable and decided I would have to rethink my airborne survival tactics.
Once home I had a few weeks of rest before my next trip skyward. This one would be relatively short and consist mostly of an ascent of fifteen minutes, twenty minutes at the desired altitude and a descent of fifteen minutes. So not really a big deal.
So a few weeks passed and I was dreading this flight. Initially because of the travel to get to the airport which consisted of a lift by car to the train station in Cork to catch an early morning train for three hours and an hour bus ride just to get to the airport. And also because of the "Classic Ryanair landing". A landing where you're not quite sure you are ok until the plane has slowed down to taxiing speed.
So this flight of less than an hour, it's a trip to from Dublin, Ireland to Glasgow, Scotland.
As we moved on the runway I had my hood up and my head placed against the bulkhead and as we left solid ground I was drifting off to dreamland. Apart from a few elbows in the ribs from a friend of mine I enjoyed the flight so much more that any before. My return journey to Ireland was much the same I was out like a light and only woken by the "Classic Ryanair Landing".
I will always do my very best to fall fast asleep during this little window of opportunity or sleeportunity! It's the only way to fly!
Happy napping!!
http://darkledagbar.blogspot.com/
Logan Kugler May 2nd 2007 6:51PM
Glad you found the story so helpful. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the story I did for the Los Angeles Times on traveling with your iPod called "The world just about fits in this little music box" on December 24th. There's some great info there, too.