Sleeping on airplanes (in cattle class)
 

I have a difficult time with jet lag, and continue to experiment with schedules, food/no food, light/no light, homeopathic remedies, etc. etc. to find what works best for me.

Meanwhile, I'm also trying to learn how to sleep on airplanes. This is especially relevant because I'm taking a red-eye from the midwest to central Europe in a couple of months. My biggest problem seems to be that I just can't sleep unless I'm almost horizontal. (The only time I've been able to sleep, even on an overnight flight, was when the back of the plane had an empty row and I could lie across 3 seats.)

I've tried Ambien and the like, but reacted badly. If anyone has any tips, tricks, or suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

tld,
I'm so glad you posed this questions. I wanted to ask it earlier but wasn't sure where to post it. I can't sleep on long flights (will be traveling 12 hours on next flight) and could really use some advice. I'm going to follow this topic to see what advice you get. Thanks for asking.

You can purchase business class or first class seats on airlines that offer flat bed service. You will be hard pushed these days to find 3 empty economy seats that you can lie flat across. Premium economy doesn't help since the armrests are fixed, at least on the airlines I have travelled on.

Even if you had not reacted to Ambien, I would avoid it for most flights; recommended time one needs to be active is 6-8 hours and there is some talk that this may be extended.

Have you tried Benadryl? And I suggest any medication you try, you first try at home to see how you react.

<i>You can purchase business class or first class seats on airlines that offer flat bed service. You will be hard pushed these days to find 3 empty economy seats that you can lie flat across. Premium economy doesn't help since the armrests are fixed, at least on the airlines I have travelled on.</i>

This.

For years, I couldn't sleep on planes. I finally figured out that it was the reclining that kept me from sleeping. I started sitting up straight, folding out the "flaps" on the headrest and use one of those "u" shaped blow up pillows. With my head properly supported, I plug in my iPod and drift off.

In recent years, I also started using Ativan (Lorazapem) to deal with fear of flying. It is an anti-anxiety, anti-nausea medication. I like it because I don't get that drugged feeling, but it does relax me enough that sleep comes even more easily.

Odin and Sparkchaser, I like your solution the best. Unfortunately, my travel budget doesn't have room for a $900 upgrade.

I found an older Washington Post article that has some detailed tips for sleeping on planes, perhaps of interest:

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2...exit-row-seats

I upgrade when I can. I cannot sleep sitting up. Period.

I've looked at those u-shaped pillows but, due to a whiplash injury back in the early 70s, I cannot sleep on a pillow that has much thickness to it at all. Just looking at those u-shaped pillows makes my neck hurt! Ouch! Not for me.

<i>Odin and Sparkchaser, I like your solution the best. Unfortunately, my travel budget doesn't have room for a $900 upgrade.</i>

I'd find that money because $900 to upgrade to business class is a helluva deal.

<i>"I'd find that money because $900 to upgrade to business class is a helluva deal."</i>

No kidding! That is a steal.

In coach:
-I take a blow up pillow for my back to give the seat more lumbar support.
-I pull my roll-aboard out from under the seat to put my feet on. If I don't have one or its in the overhead, I empty out the seatback pocket, put on my slipper/socks and prop my feet in/on the pocket depending on the configuration.
-I take a Tylenol PM, put on my headphones and my eyemask and dare anyone to annoy me.

-The first two nights in the new location, I take a sleeping pill each night. I do the same when I return home. It works quite well to adjust to a new time zone.
-In your new location, sleep with the drapes open so that the daylight will wake you at a proper hour.

If you're going the medication route to help you sleep on the plane, even with something as innocuous as Benadryl or Tylenol PM, no alcoholic beverages. That's a risky combination.

Hire hospice with morphine. But seriously, I've been using the Tylenol PM. As soon as I eat my dessert, I take one. Get a window seat and avoid the seats in front of the emergency exit. They don't recline.

How do you react to benadryl? If I take one then I'm okay but a little drowsy. Give me two and goodnight. :) I can function but I might drool a bit. If you're going to try that (or anything) do try it ahead of time to see how you react to it.

To help prevent jet lag I always schedule my sleeping on the plane for the destination. I want to sleep whenever it's night time at my destination. I also find it easiest to land in the evening so that by the time I'm at my hotel I have time to unwind and then it's bedtime. Even when I do sleep on the planes it's generally not the most restful sleep so I'm fairly tired by the time I arrive and falling asleep isn't that hard. Set an alarm to get up at a decent time the next morning.

Well now we know why so many seat back pockets are broken.

Yep...it's me. Flying on every airline, every flight...sleeping in several seats on each of my hundreds of flights each day just to break down those well made seat back pockets. Oh well............

Blow-up neck pillow + eye mask + earplugs + comfy blanket + 1/2 soma = 5-6 hours sleep. I actually slept 9 hrs on the way to and from China. 13hr flight is a killer without sleep.

>>>Even if you had not reacted to Ambien, I would avoid it for most flights; recommended time one needs to be active is 6-8 hours and there is some talk that this may be extended.<<<

You didn't say what kind of Ambien you tried, but I take the old short-acting (4 hours), not the new time release Ambien CR(8 hours). You can get the old regular Ambien in either 5mg or 10mg. I think most people having problems with Ambien are taking Ambien CR.

>>>Just looking at those u-shaped pillows makes my neck hurt!<<<

I have a child's version with microbeads in it so it's not as thick as the adult pillows. The beads squish around so it wouldn't be thick in areas you don't want it to be. It weighs almost nothing. I also have one of the down travel pillow cases that folds into itself to make a travel pillow.

<i>I've been using the Tylenol PM. As soon as I eat my dessert, I take one.</i>

I used to take Tylenol PM until the one day I was unable to fall asleep. I sat there for 6-7 hours unable to sleep with my head in a fog and my eyelids so very heavy. After that fun experience, I never took Tylenol PM on a plane again.

I do better with a window seat, bring a travel pillow and also tuck at least one leg in to the seat back pocket. Sometimes get lucky and the seat between is empty so can creep over on to that.

Best thing is to try and get plenty of sleep the few nights leading up to the trip.

For anyone not already aware, Tylenol PM is a combination of acetaminophen (brand name Tylenol®) and diphenhydramine (Brand name Benadryl®)
While in most people the antihistamine diphenhydramine produces drowsiness or outright sleep, a small number of people have a paradoxical reaction to diphenhydramine/Benadryl® and actually become agitated instead of drowsy. As with any medication, if you have never taken it previously, try it out at home before getting on the plane.

Re: reclining - I also find that the recline in cattle class seating (where I am, unfortunately, usually seated) does little to promote sleep. I am too tall to put my feet on my rollaboard but do find the neck pillow helpful. I use an inflatable one that lets me adjust the firmness and folds away to almost nothing for storage.

My doctor said some people simply cannot sleep sitting up. I am one of them. I've yet to ever sleep on an airplane.

The best position for me is the tray table down, a pillow on it. then leaning forward. For medication I use Xanax or Valium (which relax you and help the time pass but do not knock you out cold).

I have a horrible reaction to any OTC sleep aids. The opposite of what it's supposed to be. They make me wired, wide awake, and intensely anxious.

>>I am too tall to put my feet on my rollaboard<<

I'm just the opposite -- too short and my feet don't ht the floor. I can <i>barely</i> rest my feet on my bag under the seat in front and it is just as bad. Dangling legs is the worst and makes it really hard to get comfortable . . . But I do find noise canceling headphones, one (ONLY one) glass of red wine w/ dinner, and half a dose of one of the OTC sleep aids at least lets me doze maybe and hour or two on a 10 hour flight.

suze, sounds like you are one of the folks who have a paradoxical reaction to diphenhydramine / Benadryl. Worst I ever saw was a young kid whose Mom gave it to him on a plane thinking it would help him sleep - she spent hours literally chasing him in the aisles.

Seamus, yup that would describe it! I could never take stuff like Contact cold medication either. While I promise I never ran down the aisles of a plane flight (lol) I sure would be figuratively bouncing off the walls.

It's funny because I do just fine with real prescription meds (anything in the friendly -zapam family works beautifully for me).

suze, the benodiazepines (the "-pam" drugs like diazepam / Valum, lorazepam / Ativan) are a different class of drug than the antihistamine diphenhydramine/Benadryl so no surprise you respond differently. Be careful with any OTC products, read the ingredients to be sure they do not contain diphenhydramine.

I know ii know Seamus, that was my point exactly :-) and I don't use OTC stuff except Advil.

Janisj - your problem is solved easily with a squishy neck pillow. Wrap it up in the supplied blanket, or take a small pillowslip (so you can wash it), and put it under your feet.
I'm tall, but I use the above method and can stretch out comfortably quite a bit under the seat in front. The squishiness is great for occasional foot exercises too.

For the OP (and others who can't tolerate Ambien) this won't help, but other readers might want to be aware of a prescription drug called Intermezzo. It's basically a half of an Ambien--and is intended to provide four hours of sleep.

I book a window seat, and use a partially inflated blow-up pillow; ear plugs beneath my noise-canceling headphones; Intermezzo; and an eye mask. I don't sleep soundly, but can usually doze off and on. I use jackets and sweatshirts as pillows, propping up my back, as well as my neck. I think part of the key is booking flights at times when my body expects to sleep.

Carrabella - if only that would work. My legs are short and a neck pillow or tow airline provided pillow is not tall enough. My toes would just barely touch it. I used to carry a small folding footrest designed for air travel. But it was more trouble than it was worth and was heavy in my carryon.

In the old days when planes still had foot rests it was heaven since they were adjustable.

Comfortable clothes help, paying for economy plus gives you a few extra inches if you are tall, backpack on floor to prop up feet, compression hose, ambien, and stay clear of movie watching. The styroball type neck things in your own pillow case helps too.I like aisle so you can stretch out feet once in a while. I'm tall. Chap stick so lips don't dry out.

I just got on to ask this question! :-)

We're considering an overnight flight from LAS to HNL in March, but we'd like to be able to sleep on the plane if possible, so this is helpful information. Thanks, everyone.

Lee Ann

janisj= I'm short too, and my feet barely reach the floor, which puts a lot of pressure on the back of my thighs and makes my legs swell impressively on an airplane.

There is a new inflatable foot rest out that helps a lot. I got mine on Amazon. It really improved my comfort on a flight to Hawaii.

Ooh - thanks mowmow. I'll check it out. I have another 10+ hour overnight flight next month.

lots of great ideas here (non-medicated ones).

I think part of it is mental preparation... do things that tell your body it is time to go to sleep. We eat before we board, so the food is somewhat digested. Take out the contacts before I board - all things I do just before bed. Of course, 9pm or later flights also work better than 7pm flights! Finally, I wear a hooded sweatshirt with a big front pocket. The big front pocket works well to hold glasses and a tissue, the hood goes up when I'm ready to sleep and it becomes my mental "barrier" against the other stuff out there.

Having said all that... one of the surfkids can't sleep at all on planes and she is miserable. The other two curl up in tiny little balls and are asleep before we take off, so I think there is a genetic component.

I just accept that I won't be sleeping and try to make myself as comfortable as possible, while reminding myself of how the money I didn't spend for Business Class is going to finance my entire trip. Besides, sleep is overrated :)

My ingredients for a decent 6 hour sleep on an over-nighter:

1) Comfort clothes, exercise pants, nylon tee shirt, light hoodie, light Sanuk slippers. As surfmom said make sure the hoodie has a big front pocket to secure your arms. Hate dangling arms!

2) Neck brace. This is very important! Use the cheap soft cervical collar with velcro strap sold at most drug stores for about $15. It's critically important to immobilize your neck WITHOUT a huge bump pushing on the back of your neck or you won't sleep. Looks dumb but I don't care. The round beanie filled ones everyone uses throw my neck so far forward it's headache time in about 5 minutes. Hate those things!

http://www.cvs.com/shop/product-deta...t?skuId=398938

3) GOOD noise cancelling earphones (Bose 15's) with earplugs as well. This will block 90% of noise especially when the lights go out and talking ceases (hopefully!). NC earphones do well at blocking airplane engine noise but don't block conversations well thats why the earplugs are needed too. I even connect my iPhone to play classical music (London Philharmonic)at low volume but most people are not used to that and could never do that. For me, it works great.

4) Good eye mask. Not to tight but absolute darkness while still being able to blink.

5) Zolpidem (Ambien) puts me right to sleep without the sometimes wierd zombie-esque side-effects my friends have had. I've tried Melatonin but its not strong enough. I may try Benadryl next time.

There you have it. I always get 6 hours sleep on over-nighters across the pond with this formula!

Thanks for the "neck brace" tip Toucan. I'm going to look for one today for a cattle-car flight to Basel, Switzerland in November. Can't complain too much, though. Grand Circle gave me free air for river boat trip from Basel ending in Brussels. Suprisingly, the flights are fairly direct on United and Lufthansa.

What a score..free air..You may not even care if you don't, can't sleep. Excitement may interfere with the best laid plans!!!