I had a fear of flying (still do, but I can manage it better) and sleeping would have been the best thing to get through the flight. However, I could never do it. Therefore, I would do everything possible to distract myself from the fact that I was in a plane for the next 7-12 hours. In fact, I recall reading the entire Akka documentation from start to end on a red-eye flight from Washington to London. It was very dry, but it kept my mind off it.
The crazy thing is I loved flying when I was a kid. How nice it is to be ignorant