In a couple of weeks I’ll be taking an 8-1/2 hour red-eye flight in coach. I’ve got a good neck pillow, some ear plugs and an eye mask, but being 6’2", I have trouble getting comfortable enough to sleep in the confines of a coach seat. I need some help.
I’d like to spend as much of the flight as possible unconscious, but ideally not be too groggy the next day. Any suggestions?
Pop a melatonin and two benadryl while you’re waiting to board. If you’re still awake when the drink service comes around, get a double bourbon and read the Economist.
A flight that long probably has the free movies and earbuds. Get some, and put on one you’ve seen before.
Also, spend the extra money on timed-release melatonin, then when you have breakfast, have an extra cup of coffee.
Also, You might try Dramamine instead of, or in addition to the Benadryl.
Is it impractical to get a prescription? Many of my colleagues (and I too) get Ambien from our doctors for overseas business trips.
I use tryptophan. It’s an amino acid, not a sedative and I can’t say enough about it. I get it from my doc, but it’s OTC in a lot of places.
I travelled with melatonin tablets for years and with regards to sleep aids in general and melatonin in particular, check their status where you’re going. The UAE, just to name one, considers melatonin a drug and they don’t care that you can buy it at Walgreen’s back home, it’s a four-year minimum prison sentence there.
Two benadryl and a double bourbon would leave some people really groggy in the 24 hours or so after consumption. Personally I would never do it, but I’m one of those people who has a bad reaction to benadryl. (And doesn’t the package label say not to mix benadryl with alcohol? Not sure, since I never have the stuff in the house.)
Wheelz, I would not follow black rabbit’s suggestion without reading the package label carefully and, if you’re okay with consuming the benadryl and alcohol together, seeing what the combination does to you first.
In fact, if it’s really important not to be groggy the next day, you should test anything you are considering using in advance, at a time when next-day grogginess isn’t going to be a huge problem. People have a variety of reactions to even OTC sleep aids, and what works for one person is useless for another - similarly, people report differing degrees of drowsiness after use of various products.
Melatonin. Take it an hour or so before you want to be asleep… maybe at the airport before going through security or otherwise before boarding?
And then time your sleep the day before so you will be quite tired when you board the plane. That might require waking an hour or two early the day before.
I was going to suggest Ambien. And a Bailey’s.
I don’t have any recommendations for pills, but I have a food-based one.
Eat something rice-based in the airport terminal - eating rice produces a blood sugar peak, then a dip, but it’s a more gentle let-down than, say, sugar crash after eating hard candy - resulting in sleepiness rather than that awful feeling of hypoglycemia.
If you’ve never taken Ambien, then do not get it for this flight.
Some people enter a weird “waking sleep” state on the stuff, where they’re walking and talking and are also effectively unconscious. You can also enter a blackout state if something prevents you from falling asleep after taking the pill.
You’re better off with a Valium or Flexeril if you can get your doctor to prescribe you a couple. The nice thing about those is that they also help your muscles stay relaxed while you’re sleeping in that contorted airplane position.
Melatonin is great stuff, too. Consider getting a sleeping mask because it works by tricking your body into thinking it’s nighttime and you can’t really avoid light on an airplane. I would also wait to take it until the plane is about to take off. It’s got a pretty short window of efficacy.
On my last long-haul flight I took a Flexeril, a melatonin, and a glass of wine. Slept through almost the whole thing, and I’m a big dude who generally can’t sleep on planes at all.
Eh… I just didn’t want to go to the trouble of asking my doctor for a prescription just for this one instance. Plus, I don’t really care to experiment with Ambien, for the reasons Johnny Bravo mentioned.
Melatonin sounds like a good (and safe) choice. Maybe I’ll couple it with one of those herbal sleep aids; I’ve had mixed results with those in the past, but it will probably help some.
Are you in the United States? My experience in China is that a doctor would prescribe a couple sleeping pills for this kind of thing. In the US, I’ve always presumed they would not.
Depends on the doctor and the patient. Some don’t like to prescribe medications like that just on an ask. Others basically run pill mills. I dropped my last GP because his go-to response to complaints was to prescribe me pain meds - those pains ended up being symptoms of a condition that no amount of pills would have ever cured. Turns out I needed back surgery.
My current doctor knows that I’m reluctant to take any non-essential prescription medications, and also that I read up on pretty much everything. When I asked for something for the trip I mentioned above, he prescribed me a few Ambien.
I filled the prescription, looked into the side effects, and shelved the bottle. It’s still in the cabinet.
My wife likes Tylenol PM.
The recommendations for using melatonin depend on whether you’re flying east or west, but that is more to combat jet lag and not specifically to fall asleep during the flight. I got some recently for a 15 hour trans Pacific flight and didn’t end up using it west bound, and then only used it a couple times after returning. Be warned that Walgreens sells probably 20 different melatonin options because they have several different brands and then several different doses/types. It was a little overwhelming and I almost just skipped it, but ended up getting 1mg chewables thinking I could always take more than one. I don’t think it did much for me. On the flight itself I slept OK with neck pillow, eye mask, and face mask. I also prefer a window so I can lean against it.
I think it’s gonna depend very much on you. I discovered last year that Benadryl will knock me on my ass (which is why I avoid it, unless I’m having an allergy attack and wanting to sleep. Then it’s very nice.) So worth trying an experiment before your flight (some people have the opposite result/paradoxical reaction to Benadryl and it gets them hyper.) Unfortunately, nothing will get me asleep on a flight (I just can’t do it at more than fifteen minute stretches at a time, unless I’m very lucky.) I personally would try Benadryl and some bourbon, but not expect it to work, but at least get me into that zen consciousness state in between wakefulness and sleep.
i.e. acetaminophen and diphenhydramine (Benedryl).
Seconding the suggestion to try out the possible substance ahead of time. You would not want to find out too late that you are one of those people who, like me, react to Benadryl by being completely *unable *to sleep.
So I took a 5 mg (max recommended dosage) time-release melatonin tablet last night at 10:30, went to bed at 11:00, and was still awake at 1:00 am. Then I woke up again at 5:30. And this was in my big comfy bed, not a cramped airplane seat. I think I’ll try something else.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing that can help significantly. Sorry to say, but you’ll have to “grin and bear it”.