> and I slept the whole 5 hours like it was 5 minutes
That's an experience I've never had on a flight
That's an experience I've never had on a flight
Still remember that one twenty years later.
Just before falling asleep I managed to see the sun rising on the quietest flight I've ever taken. Just one and half an hour, but it felt like I had never slept before :D
Incidentally, that was the trip that actually started my career as a developer.
Is there a worse place to wait than those airports? The shops sell Rolex watches, Hugo Boss suits, alcohol (let me lug some bottles of vine/booze across the globe to save $12) + perfume. Obviously some overpriced cafe's and restaurants there as well, but not exactly a cool place to "hang out".
Plus it’s a bit more secure so you can feel less worried about sleeping and your luggage going missing.
If you’re lucky, there might not even be any babies or children.
But we're definitely not going to be flying private. :)
On an airplane you lose the internet, but the same general strategy works for me. Re. sleeping, it works for me to sleep when I'm able to and say "well if you can't sleep right now, read your book. Oh, you're too tired to read your book? Maybe it's time to sleep"
There are also the stories of the people who have lived for months in airports. I guess you are lucky it was "only" 9 hours, but yeah, it doesn't sound pleasant.
We were in Caracas; so we were advised not to go into the city. It became a 9 hour stint at Burger King pretty much, which is enough.
If you look at long airports visits from a "survival" aspect, it's probably quite nice. Or at least compared to being on the "Alone" show; but certainly not something I'd recommend :-)
Don't make the mistake I did of taking them before take-off ... and then have the plane discover a fault on the runway ....
I normally wake with bit of a fright when the wheels touch down for landing though.
If you want to be polite it's probably worth telling the crew to wake you if you snore.
And before the anyone tries to swoop in and score virtue points by linking to some study about how alcohol reduces "muh quality REM sleep" I'd just like to remind everyone that the alternative here is not sleeping on your flight.
Before the first use you put the mouthpiece into very hot water, bite it with jaw going forward, then let it cool down. You can reshape it the same way later in case the fit is not good enough. This was the case with me - I was waking up with a totally sore jaw (too much forward shift). After the reshape it is much better.
People report it is possible to make it possible to breathe through the mouthpiece. I found it unnecessary - maybe it even improves the airflow through the nose (I am not sure - could be placebo).
Googleable keywords is "mandibular advancement device". Good luck.
I have a feeling they're all struggling to sleep or sleeping poorly.
Honestly, it's been a trial-and-error process. I discovered a few things that work for me (YMMV, of course):
* Length of flight helps. I NEVER could sleep on international flights to Europe when I lived in NYC, because those flights were ~6-7 hours, which is, I think, the worst possible length for sleeping. By the time dinner service is done and the lights are out, there's about 3-4 hours of solid quiet time before they start prepping for breakfast/coffee service. Not enough. When I moved to SF, the 10-12 hour flights to Europe turned out to be the perfect length.
* Time of flight helps. The best possible flight for sleeping for me are the 7pm departures out of SFO that land in Europe 10-12 hours later. That's basically normal sleep time for me, so my body is actually in sync with the flight.
* Supplements help. The magic combo for me is 3mg of melatonin + 1 glass of red wine :)
Ambien has costarred in a few of those "I'm sorry, they did what?" stories. It can make your behavior random if you don't fall asleep quickly or get woken early.
It's the reason that I fantasize about planes one day offering real beds — or at least seats that can be put (in economy class, mind you) into a flat position.
But only because I had only just started my paid career as a software engineer, my boss had gone on vacation leaving me to run the computer systems at a multinational research facility, and I had worked for 72 hours without any sleep right before leaving :)
I don't think we'll ever get bunk planes as long as revenue maximization is at the core of the airlines' operations.
Sadly, the requirement for everybody to be able to leave a burning plane quickly gets in the way of that particular dream.
It can also happen if you fly into an airport that was closed for the week before because it was bombed.