Advice needed to make myself sleep on a plane - how do you do it?

[Havingasmashingtime]

I have a 9 hour flight coming up that leaves at 9pm so I need to sleep on it.

only the problem is I CANT SLEEP ON PLANES.

sadly I am a peasant so no first class beds for me.
i will be cramped into a small space sat upright.

any tips to force myself into a sleep?
any supplements I can take or drugs?
if so at what hour before the flight would I take it?

to add- when I arrive at the destination I need to be wide awake and raring to go - there will be no chill time

thank you in advance….

What about emergency landings which are not that uncommon where people need to evacuate by slide or where you may be in an emergency exit row seat and have to assist the crew?

It's if there's an emergency landing situation, evacuation by slides, brace position etc or if you are sat in an exit row seat and you have to assist the crew! How much of a hindrance is it when people are drugged up to the tits on the plane!

You made a perfectly valid point! These people are ignoring the fact that people drugged up to the tits are going to be hindrance in an emergency landing or if evacuation has to be done by emergency exits and slides! Imagine the person sat in the emergency exit rows is too intoxicated from mixing drugs and sleeping pills etc!

Have a crap night’s sleep the night before, run around like a maniac the day of the flight, take an anti histamine and 2 paracetamol in the airport, drink 2 glasses of wine, eye mask, good earplugs and a cushion on the flight. Zzzzzzzzzz I’ve been asleep before takeoff before….

Thank you so mucn for this! I completely agree and it’s relieving to know I am not alone.

If you’d be a liability, more likely the impact would be the stewards difficulty getting you to follow instructions or get off the plane quickly and safely and not impeding evacuation of the plane in emergency landing or other unexpected but not uncommon situations.

Being on a plane is already risk of blood clots and Increases if sedated.

Intoxication combined with air travel is more likely to lead to needing to emergency landings.

No one would expect you to perform emergency tracheostomy!

Some could potentially safely have a low dose of diazepam especially if they know how their body reacts to it, but not safe on a flight if it totally zonks them out for the count.

Same here, I have tried everything.short haul
I have sat there knackered but wide awake with an eye mask, neck pillow and having taken nytol on many overnight 8-12 hour flights as well as various short hauls
I just cannot do it, DH falls asleep on most flights on ascent

My partner and I go overseas about 5 times a year and lord knows I fear turbulence but I would never start mixing sedatives and and alcohol on a flight. If these people get it wrong and there's concern that they've overdosed or become completely incapable then they may cause an entire flight of people to get diverted!

There's people on here stating that they drug themselves for a 2.5 hour afternoon flight and to me that's just ridiculous.

Well, disclosure.... not Nytol.... just back from Thailand they sell Diazies over the counter. Had a lovely sleep on the way home🫠

I can fall.asleeo anywhere in sitting at victoria coach station when we went poland.i was asleep before take.off hubby showed the steward my belt lol I was out

I've tried literally everything over the years, from special pillows to wine, antihistamines, valium and stilnox. It's just not possible to sleep sitting up in my case.

For me, the key is to accept this and accept that it will be quite horrible and I'll be bored and extremely tired. I download some books and movies and make use of the time.

I generally fail to be honest, but…. no wine (contrary to popular opinion) as it makes me feel awful in the air, milky drink before the plane, book, a looong day beforehand ideally with a big bunch of exercise in it. Hopefully you’ll feel sort of tired so go with it, be comfy, do similar things to what you’d normally do for bed (ie if you tend to sleep at 11pm don’t attempt to sleep before that, but if 9 is it then don’t start the movies and avoid the meal on the plane- eat in the airport)

and then when it comes to actually sleeping (or attempting it)…. I stick in noise cancelling headphones and listen to albums on repeat whilst wrapped in a shawl (aka blanket), ideally in a window seat so I’ve got the wall. even so I wake pretty well every 45mins but it’s vaguely better than nothing. If all else fails while everyone else is snoring at 3am give up and watch the movies then.

good luck- I’ve tried so much and the above is as close as I’ve got to some pretty dreadful disturbed sleep.

Zolpidem I have found to be effective and it’s fine if you have at least 8 hours to sleep.