How to fall asleep on an airplane: effective methods, review of drugs, reviews. Sleeping pills for flying on an airplane: approved drugs Sleep mask

The plane is one of the fastest modes of transport. In a short period of time, it will deliver to anywhere in the world. However, despite this, not all people can tolerate flights, and some are simply afraid. Especially there is discomfort when you need to drive all night or more than 7-8 hours.

Many people cannot sleep during the flight, so they try to resort to the use of sedatives. sleeping pills. Some say that it is not recommended to take sleeping pills on a plane, because. this negatively affects the body, others suggest using alcohol to calm down.

Indications for use

Sedative drugs are prescribed for sleep disorders of various etiologies, as well as at bedtime with severe overexcitation nervous system. They are also recommended for people who often change time zones, which leads to disruption of biorhythms.

Flaws: there is a percentage of the occurrence of allergies

Contraindications: Not.

Traveling develops a person's personality, expanding his horizons. But everything has a flip side of the coin. The worst enemy of any traveler is jet lag.

Can this problem be solved?

jet lag syndrome

Long-haul jet lag occurs when we experience a desynchronization between our internal body clock and the "external" clock, the time of our destination.

This is the explanation given by Natalie Dautovich, Ph.D. environment National Sleep Foundation.

Symptoms of this desynchronization include fatigue, difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating, indigestion, and a bad depressed mood.

All these moments can spoil even the most long-awaited vacation.

The following 8 tricks will help you fall asleep easily on an airplane so that you stay alert and fresh later.

How to deal with jetlag*

* Jetlag (from English jet - jet aircraft and English lag - delay), time zone change syndrome - a phenomenon of a person's rhythm mismatch with the daily rhythm, caused by a rapid change of time zones when flying by plane.

1. Choose Your Flights Carefully and Book Your Tickets

Choose a flight that allows you to arrive at your destination early in the evening.

This is exactly the kind of advice Dautovich gives. This way you will miss sleep completely.

It will be easier for you to stay up until 10pm local time, which is the recommended bedtime when visiting a destination that follows a different time zone.

2. Set your clock correctly

Having a visual cue will help your body adjust to the new time faster.

Set your watch to the new time as soon as you board the plane. In this way, your mind will begin to adjust to the new time zone.

3. Take Melatonin

Melatonin is a hormone that is naturally produced by the body during sleep. You can purchase melanin from a pharmacy. This drug will help your body adjust to the new time zone.

After taking melatonin, your body seems to say: "I mixed up the time, now it's time to sleep," and you fall asleep.

Dr. Basil warns that the body needs only one milligram of the drug. This small amount is enough to fall asleep healthy and sound sleep.

Large doses will help induce drowsiness and lethargy. Therefore, follow the recommended dose carefully.

4. Be sure to have lunch before the plane

In his opinion, this is part of the circadian rhythm when you try to tell your body: "It's lunch time, you need to eat."

You don't have to wait on the plane for food of dubious quality, you can just go to bed.

How to sleep on an airplane

5. Use a sleep mask

Light interferes with the production of melatonin, says Dr. Basil, and contributes to the fact that a person is not drawn to sleep.

Bazil suggests avoiding bright lights, turning off phones, laptops, and other modern gadgets to avoid disrupting sleep.

Your body should not be awake.

On night flights, try not to watch movies or read electronic books when the plane is taking off. Use an eye mask to keep as little light as possible on you.

6. Use a dedicated neck pillow

Neck pillows can be a real lifesaver if you're on a bus or on an overnight flight.

When the neck cannot take the position it needs and you cannot fold it back, you begin to experience pain in the cervical region.

In such a situation, a special pillow for the neck will come to the rescue.

7. Take something that reminds you of home.

Bring an eye mask, ear plugs, comfortable pajamas, and if possible, bring some bedding from home.

Thus, your subconscious mind will perceive the situation as homely and it will be easier for you to fall asleep.

8. Avoid alcohol before and during flights

While all of the above tricks can help you fall asleep quickly, alcohol is the worst enemy of healthy sleep.

This is exactly what Dr. Dautovich thinks. In his opinion, alcohol before bedtime can actually be a stimulant of human activity to disrupt normal sleep.

The warmer the country, the further it is for some reason from Russia. During the holiday season, the happiest of us will have many hours of flight to the beach (which is nice) and the same flight back (which is not very nice). "Gazeta.Ru" has collected the main rules, following which, on the plane, you can sleep peacefully, and not suffer, as you usually do.

Place
Always choose a window seat. This way you will have a few centimeters more space than those who sit at the aisle (and on an airplane this is a serious difference). In addition, your neighbor will not have to wake you up if he wants to take a walk.

Never book a seat in the last row. Firstly, in most aircraft models, these seats cannot be fully reclined. You probably feel frustrated with how little the seat reclines every time you fly, but if it doesn't recline at all, things will be much more unpleasant. Secondly, after a couple of hours of flight, a queue of people who want to go to the toilet and those who are just tired of sitting and want to take a walk forms in the tail. They will hang over your seat, hold on to the back of your chair and discuss Natasha, who is going to Thailand to cheat on Pavlik.

If you don't get seasick, book seats closer to the tail of the plane, recommends the authors of a study on the different seats in an airplane, published in the American journal "Popular Mechanics". It is believed that the closer to the bow, the less it shakes, so helpful stewards often move passengers with children forward. And when the children are not yours, in a confined space it is better to keep a respectful distance from them.

Body
Buy a bottle of water before your flight. Dry airplane air leads to rapid dehydration, and dehydration leads to insomnia. Do not drink alcohol on board. And not only because it may end up with you becoming the next YouTube star in a video with the caption “Our people are flying to Egypt”, but also because pressure drops in the cabin already put a lot of stress on the heart. Don't make it difficult for him.

By the way, about the heart. If you bend forward heartbeat decreases automatically - the body goes into a calm mode. Therefore, many doctors (according to one of the most respected medical journals in the world New England Journal of Medicine) recommend that those who find it difficult to fall asleep on an airplane try to lie down on a folding table.

If this seems too drastic to you, bend forward, rest your elbows on your knees, and when you feel yourself breathing more slowly, lean back and fall asleep.

Even when you sleep in your own bed, you change the position of your body. from 20 times in one night. So there is nothing wrong with constantly wanting to spin around while sitting in an airplane seat. Do it - don't be shy.

clothing
On the plane you need to dress comfortably, not beautifully. Clothing should be made from natural fabrics to "breathe". Shoes, girls, without heels. You've seen the video on how to behave on board during a crash. You will still be forced to take off your heels before leaving the plane - and you will walk around the desert island barefoot.

But seriously, the muscles of the legs should not be tense - and for this they should be in a natural position, and not in the one in which you keep them on stilettos.

Food
As on earth, the more densely you dine, the more difficult it will be for you to fall asleep. At the same time, it is even more difficult to fall asleep on an empty stomach, so be sure to eat something. The plane often becomes the place where people begin to indulge in "junk food", which is usually not touched. Sweets, coffee and carbohydrate-rich foods invigorate. If you have a choice, focus on proteins (meat) and green vegetables .

Temperature before bed human body declining, because all systems do not work in such an intensive mode as during wakefulness. This mechanism can be used to convince the body that it is time for sleep. Try eating some ice cream, cold yogurt, fruit, iced juice, or just plain water.

Entertainment
There are a lot of them on the plane: both films and books, and radio, and pointless purchases. Do not neglect these pleasures, but just before going to bed, it is best to listen to quiet music from your own player, recommends John DiScala, editor-in-chief of a popular travel magazine. The fact is that when the music is familiar, the brain does not waste energy on “understanding” it, and you relax.

Accessories
eye patch. The pilot will turn the lights on and off every time he needs to say something. Passengers will play with their light bulbs. So without a bandage with the same success, you can try to sleep in a disco.

Earplugs. The kids won't stop crying. No. And do not hope. It is useless to muffle them with a film or music. And it’s good that you still won’t get enough sleep to the sound of the movie. The best solution is ear plugs.

Neck brace. If you still don't have one, it's most likely because you think people with these headbands look stupid. Just notice, you are sitting in an airplane with red eyes and thinking about it for several hours, while the rest are sleeping sweetly. For peaceful sleep it is necessary that the neck muscles do not have to hold your tired head. In aircraft seats, this is almost impossible to do without latches. So either a fixer, or quickly and intimately make friends with a neighbor and put your head on his shoulder.

And most importantly. In no case do not think that you need to sleep. This is the first thing doctors teach people with insomnia. No need to sit with eyes closed and worry about not sleeping. Don't think that you can't sleep. Don't worry. Think pleasant. In the end, fly to the sea. Good night!

The reader of my blog might think that my life consists solely of trips to different countries. Actually it is not. . So every hour of vacation is on my account, and I simply cannot spend several days getting used to the new (or old) time zone. Therefore, it is very important for me to be able to sleep on airplanes.

This skill did not come to me immediately, but having perfected it, I suddenly realized that the whole world was open before me.

Now I can plan trips that would seem absurd to many. Drive? No problem! Or ? ? ? Pro . All this is possible if you learn to sleep on board an airplane!

Today I will share with you my methods. Maybe someone will come in handy. The longer the flight, the easier it is to oversleep some part of it. For example, it took 18 hours to fly to Singapore, I managed to sleep twice. But if you really need it, you can sleep on a four-hour flight. Less than that doesn't make much sense.

There are two very important components to the success of air sleep: need and possibility. Need is how much you want to sleep, and opportunity is how comfortable you are to sleep in the place where you are flying. Of course, they are interconnected: if you really want to sleep, then you can fall asleep even in the cramped and uncomfortable chair.

This is how I sleep in economy seats. Therefore, I never take a seat in the front row, or immediately after the wall, which my knees cannot reach. (It is also because they force all hand luggage to be removed on the mezzanine.) It is not convenient for me to sleep sitting, stretching out my legs, I always have to rest against something. Sometimes I even open the table and put my legs right on it - but otherwise my posture is stable:

This hood is no coincidence either. It can be pulled over the eyes, and the light will not interfere when the neighbor decides to solve Sudoku in the middle of the night. (But I don't like eye masks.)

I know that there are people who, on the contrary, like to lean their heads on the table (I sometimes do this myself, but I can’t stand it for a long time, it’s not very convenient for me). If you sit by the window, you can also lean on the wall. And some just simply sitting stretch their legs and sleep - with a pillow that is worn around the neck. Be that as it may, everyone has their own way of sleeping in economy.

But the maximum opportunity to sleep, of course, is for business class passengers, one in which the chair turns into a bed. Here you can fall asleep even with the minimum need for that. (I recently described five ways the average person can fly business class.)

But just because you're flying in economy class, that doesn't mean you can't take it easy. It happens that in the economy you can grab a whole row and raise the seat handles. Then sleeping is almost as comfortable as in an expensive business, you can stretch out to your full height. (This is another reason not to sit in the front row - there the arms of the chairs do not rise, because tables and monitors are hidden in them.

In principle, in order to fall asleep, two places are enough, you just have to curl up. It's amazing what acrobatic tricks adults, it would seem, people who want to fall asleep, are capable of.

As for the need to sleep, there are only two ways to increase it: not getting enough sleep, or taking sleeping pills. For a special thermonuclear effect, I advise you to use both.

With "lack of sleep" everything is clear. If the flight is in the evening, you can only sleep a few hours the night before. If the flight is in the morning, then you can not go to bed at night before it. At the same time, you will have a lot of time to pack your suitcase / backpack.

As for sleeping pills, you have to be careful here - usually it's for a good eight hours, so on shorter flights it may not be the best option. But on the other hand, on long ones it helps a lot, especially in order to adjust sleep to the time zone of the destination (this The best way overcome jetlag).

Personally, I use NyQuil tablets - they are actually for flu and colds, but contain sleeping pills (originally appeared in the 1960s so that the patient could sleep well). These pills are sold in America without a prescription, they are beautiful Green colour and are easily swallowed. One tablet is enough for me, which I drink with some alcohol to heighten the effect. After half an hour - forty minutes sleep is guaranteed. (Yes, I know that drinking with sleeping pills is generally not recommended.)

In my opinion, NyQuil is not sold in Russia, but a similar sleeping pill is contained in a medicine called Donormil. So check with your pharmacy.

Well, perhaps that's all. The main thing to remember the formula:

Successful Sleep(on the plane) = Possibility + Need

So forward to a brighter future! The whole world is yours.

PS: If you have your own special methods, please share!

If you like to cross your legs while sitting, give up this habit. This position interferes with normal blood circulation in the legs and does not allow the body to relax. It is best when they are straight and only slightly bent at the knees. Increase the angle of the bend when this pose begins to bother, and after a while, straighten your legs back.

2. Move the seat back

Prolonged sitting with a straight back creates a load on the lower back. To lower it, tilt the chair back and lie on your back. Alternatively, you can purchase a lumbar pillow and take it with you on flights.

3. Choose a window seat

If possible, choose a window seat to have the side of the plane at your side. In this case, you will have one more comfortable position for sleeping in stock: you can rest, leaning to one side, without disturbing your neighbor. If you didn’t get a seat in advance and you didn’t get a seat by the window, ask the flight attendant if it’s possible to transfer to another seat.

4. Avoid contact with displays before bed

Try not to use the screens of your gadgets for an hour before bedtime, be it tablets, laptops or smartphones. The light they emit suppresses the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

5. Put unnecessary things on the shelf

Put clothes, bags and other unnecessary things in the luggage rack. If you leave one of them with you, you will have to put it next to a chair or hold it in your hands. Such objects will certainly create discomfort during sleep.

6. Watch your diet

Do not eat within two hours before bed. And don't overeat on the day of the flight. Filling your stomach with more food will force your heart to work harder to support digestion. This will prevent you from relaxing.

7. Comfortable clothes

During a long flight, you are unlikely to be comfortable sitting in tight jeans. Put on, for example, soft, not tight pants - they will be much more comfortable. Consider in advance what your clothes are best for the plane.

8. Bring your sleeping supplies

During the flight, you may need earplugs, a pillow and an eye mask. The absence of light and unwanted sounds is what you need for a sound sleep, as well as increased convenience. You can also take a small blanket with you if you like to cover your legs.

9. Try to sleep less before your flight

Alternatively, you can limit your sleep the night before your flight. Having exhausted yourself, you will sleep like a baby on the plane. But if the flight will be short, then it is better not to bother yourself with this trick. Otherwise, you will not have time to restore strength and after landing you will feel tired.

10. Take sleeping pills

If there is a long flight ahead and nothing helps with insomnia, the last option left is to take sleeping pills. For such situations, preparations based on melatonin are suitable. But before choosing a sleeping pill, be sure to consult a doctor.