Shutterstock Prepare your clothes and accessoriesīe prepared so you can create the best possible sleep situation within the constraints of an aircraft seat. Our muscles naturally relax when we’re asleep, making it difficult to keep the head supported. Taking melatonin in your biological afternoon and evening will shift your circadian time-keeping system east (or earlier) and taking it toward the end of your biological night and in your biological morning will shift the circadian time-keeping system west (or later). This could shift you further away from being aligned with the destination time zone. Melatonin can assist with sleep, but depending on when and how much you take, it can also shift your circadian clock. Importantly, melatonin is a hormone our brains use to tell us it’s nighttime. Many sleeping medications do not allow perfectly normal sleep to occur and can make you feel groggy and drowsy after waking. This is a very personal choice.īefore taking sleeping medication or melatonin you should see your doctor, and only take what’s prescribed for you. Some people find taking a sleeping tablet or melatonin can help on a plane. What about taking melatonin or other drugs? Although you may fall asleep more easily after consuming alcohol, your sleep will be more disturbed once your body metabolises the alcohol and attempts to catch up on the REM sleep it’s missed out on. On the other hand, alcohol makes us feel sleepy, but it interferes with our brains’ ability to have REM sleep (also known as dreaming sleep). Even if you’re a regular coffee drinker and can fall asleep after drinking caffeine, your sleep will be lighter and you’ll be more easily woken. On nighttime flights it will be easier to sleep once the dinner service is finished, otherwise you will be battling noise, light and the movement of people around you.Įxplainer: can you pay off your 'sleep debt'?Īs a stimulant, caffeine helps us stay alert. We do have a natural decrease of alertness in the middle of the afternoon, which makes this a good time to try for sleep on a daytime flight. Sleeping (or waking) against this biological time-keeping system poses significant challenges. The timing of your flight, and consumption of alcohol and caffeine will directly impact your ability to sleep on an aircraft.Īssuming you’re adjusted to the time zone the flight departs from, daytime flights will make sleep on board much harder, whereas nighttime flights make sleep easier.Īll humans have a circadian (24-hour) time-keeping system, which programs us for sleep at night and wakefulness during the day. iStock/Getty Images Plus Time your sleep and drinks Unless you can lie down and stretch out your body while on a flight, you’re probably not going to get a solid eight hours of shuteye. So you’re likely to have slept more than you think. So, even if you can’t get your usual eight hours during the flight, any sleep you do get will help you feel and function better at your destination.Īlso, we’re not great at judging how much sleep we’ve had, particularly if our sleep is light and broken. This, plus findings from many other lab-based studies, tells us that even a short amount of light sleep has benefits. Despite not having great quality sleep, you can be assured our research also shows pilots remain very good at their job throughout a long-haul flight. Research by colleagues and myself has shown pilots – who get a bunk to sleep in during their in-flight rest breaks – have light and fragmented sleep. Unless you’re lucky to fly in a class with a lie-flat seat, you’re very unlikely to step off a long-haul flight having had a solid eight hours of sleep. Humans are just not well designed to sleep in an almost upright position. The first tip for sleep in this setting is to relax your expectations a little. So, what can you do to get a a decent rest? Accept the situation If you’re on a flight from New York to Singapore, it can be close to 19 hours.Īll that time you’re confined in a seat that’s supposed to recline but feels like it hardly moves, while the seat in front seems to recline ten times lower than yours. But by its very definition, a long-haul flight involves travelling for a long period of time, often more than 12 hours. Of course, you want to arrive fully rested and ready to go. Even work can be more interesting when you’re in a new location. We’re off somewhere different – perhaps a holiday, maybe to catch up with friends or family. For most of us, the prospect of a long-haul flight is exciting, mixed with a few nerves.
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