I can fall asleep almost anywhere. I routinely fall asleep in the break room at work. Once, I was helping a friend fix his car, and I fell asleep on his garage floor when he went inside to get water.
But in a hot metal tube tearing through the sky, with my neck all kinked? Get out of here, man.
I am gonna be honest with you here. Some of us born with a gift, given directly from god. They can sleep, without thinking embarrassing memories, without using any medicine, without finding comfort itself. But you and I… and many others… we are not welcomed to this dream world of easy sleepers. We are not gifted.
My partner is one of these. I have photos of him sleeping on planes, trains, boats and cars. He can be worried about something, or stressed about tomorrow, and still fall asleep within 5 minutes of laying down. I am so jealous.
While many times it is a gift it is a curse if we suppose to be with someone. We go on a road trip? You barely close the door I am asleep. We ride buss I am asleep as soon as I sit down. Air plane I wake up 8 hours later. Hang out in bed I am gone.
I have to fight to stay awake but that is in vain. I will lose the fight five minutes later.
I usually have trouble falling asleep and can’t just take a nap in the afternoon - never could.
But on a plane I’ll be asleep minutes after the engines started and I’ll happily sleep for hours through an entire flight. Something about the engine noise and movement of the cabin is very soothing to me. Same for trains, busses, cars.
And yet I’ll regularly lie in my bed awake desperately trying to fall asleep…
Sounds like you might benefit from some white noise sleeping at home. Can play it through your phone or even an old radio set to some quiet static.
Drugs
Pure exhaustion from all the “hurry up and wait” of airport bullshit.
By the time I’ve gotten out of bed, gotten ready, travelled to the airport, dragged all my shit through the airport, unpacked and repacked half of it through security, boarded the plane … my body just kinda gives up on being awake.
neck pillow, eye mask, noise-cancelling headphones, and not comfortably
Same here, except I use ear plugs as well as headphones
I use ear plugs then put on nose cancelling headphones.
Complete silence. I didn’t hear the crying baby that was screaming for the 10 hour flight until the last hour lol.
There is a good trick: Business class. As I only fly business class long haul as I only fly for the job.
And luckily I can force my clients to pay for it.
Otherwise, as a rather long and large person, I am fucked.
Hot? I’m usually cold on airplanes. That would definitely make a difference for me.
Neck pillow for the neck kinks. I don’t like the horseshoe shaped ones though, I like the trtl brand style. Expensive, but it became worth it when I took a job requiring a couple flights per month minimum.
While I’m usually also freezing on the plane I noticed that Japanese Airlines cranks up the Heat during the night.
The jet engine noise puts me to sleep. Those sweet delta waves.
I fly jetBlue or Southwest; no Delta for me.
For real. I sometimes put plane engine noise at home as background noise to fall asleep
