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How to sleep on a plane: what actually helps

Most of it is decided before you board: your seat, your last coffee, and when your destination says it's night.

The short answer

Sleep when it’s night at your destination, not just when the cabin goes dark. Block out light and noise, stop caffeine well before you board, drink water and go easy on alcohol, and skip long-acting sleeping pills. On long flights, get up and move now and then, even if it breaks up your sleep.

Sleep on destination time

The CDC’s advice for long trips is to time your sleep, meals and light exposure to the time zone you’re flying to. On an overnight flight east, that usually means sleeping as much as you can. On a daytime flight west, it can mean staying awake, or taking only a short nap, so you’re ready for bed at your new evening. Sleeping on the plane at the wrong time can leave you wide awake at your destination’s bedtime. Our guide to melatonin for jet lag covers the days after you land.

Pick your seat with sleep in mind

A window seat gives you a wall to lean on and nobody climbing over you. An aisle seat makes it easier to get up and move, and the CDC notes it might also lower the risk of blood clots on long flights. If you plan to sleep most of the way and you’re not at higher risk for clots, the window usually wins. If you are, choose the aisle and plan to move.

Block out light and noise

Light is one of the body clock’s main cues, and a cabin is full of it: reading lights, screens, the galley. An eye mask and earplugs, which the CDC mentions as aids for sleeping on a flight, are the two simplest tools. Pull the window shade if you have one, turn your screen off rather than down, and set your phone to stay dark.

Time your caffeine

Caffeine lasts longer than it feels like it does. In a 2013 study, 400mg of caffeine (about 2 to 3 cups of coffee) taken six hours before bed still cut measured sleep by more than an hour, and the people in the study largely didn’t notice. If you want to sleep on an evening flight, make the lunchtime coffee your last one. Our Energy strips carry 40mg each, a tenth of that dose, and they belong after you land, not before you board.

Drink water, go easy on alcohol

The CDC advises staying hydrated, because running low on fluids can make jet lag feel worse, and avoiding excess alcohol. A drink to relax is common on a flight; several are a poor trade for the night you’re trying to have.

Sleeping pills on a plane

The CDC advises against sleep medications with long half-lives on flights. It lists antihistamines and long-acting benzodiazepines among the medications that can impair thinking, raise the risk of falls and affect physical performance, none of which you want in a narrow aisle or a new city. If you use a prescription sleep medication, ask your doctor before taking it on a flight.

Where melatonin fits

Honestly: the research behind melatonin for travel centers on taking it at bedtime at your destination, and says little about taking it in the air. If you try it on a flight, take it only when the flight’s night lines up with bedtime at your destination and you have a long stretch of sleep ahead, and never if you’ll be driving soon after you land. Melatonin may cause drowsiness; it isn’t for anyone under 18, and if you are pregnant or nursing, have epilepsy, take a blood thinner or take other regular medication, check with your healthcare provider first.

If you do carry it, Oprimaze Sleep Support strips need no water and no room in your liquids bag: one strip under the tongue, about 60 seconds to dissolve.

On long flights, keep moving

Sitting still for hours slows blood flow in your legs, and immobility on long flights raises the risk of blood clots. The overall risk is low (studies of flights over four hours put it at roughly 1 in 4,700 to 1 in 6,000 flights), but the CDC calls it reasonable to walk the aisle often and do calf exercises in your seat. Risk is higher with a previous clot or a family history of them, cancer, pregnancy, estrogen use, recent surgery or a hospital stay, obesity, older age, or being very tall or very short. If that’s you, talk to your doctor before a long flight; compression stockings are one option they may suggest.

A red-eye checklist

  • Before you book:window to sleep, aisle if you’re at higher risk for clots.
  • That afternoon: last coffee around lunch.
  • In your bag: eye mask, earplugs, a water bottle to fill after security.
  • On board: switch your watch to destination time, water over wine, screen off, mask on.
  • Every few hours awake: a walk down the aisle and some calf raises.
  • After you land: daylight, and a normal bedtime on local time.

Sources

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.