How I Put Myself to Sleep on a Long-Haul Flight

Travel

After 25 years and more than 200 flights, I started paying attention to what my body is doing and how it feels across all stages of travel.

My all-time most hated part has always been long-haul flights, so I had to invent and find ways to survive them that help me not only leave with less anxiety, but also travel more comfortably and arrive in one piece.

As a human being.

I want to share them here, hoping they might help somebody else, or perhaps bring some new ideas for experimentation.

I would be grateful if you shared your techniques, too.

Pre-flight: At the Airport I Disappear

Before boarding, many people browse airport duty-free stores, have (many) drinks, go for coffee… But what I do is always the same.

I disappear.

When I fly with my guests, they notice that before boarding I am nowhere to be found.

What do I do? It’s not a prayer 🙂

First, I go for a protein-heavy dinner (hard to find at airports, where so much of the food is carb-based, so I usually bring my own boiled eggs and some proper meat), but I also love to have a Japanese soup before (or after) the flight for some much-needed rehydration.

Then I take myself to a lounge, where the ritual starts.

In the shower, I remove all my makeup and cleanse my body.

Afterwards, I take a deep breath and gather all my decisiveness to start dragging compression socks onto my ankles that had felt all too free until then.

I change my clothes into flight mode: cosy, multi-layered outfits of pure natural fabrics such as linen, cotton, alpaca wool or cashmere.

One piece of advice: the inflight synthetic fleece blankets never do the job, and it is very cold on the plane during the night, so bring a woollen scarf and a sweater.

And one useful detail: don’t forget a small face towel.

It’s a piece of home.

It smells of home and is home away from home.

Preparation of My Tools

Before leaving the lounge, I open my suitcase and take out my Necessities pouch and a warm woollen scarf or sweater that I had stored there during my airport transit.

My Inflight Necessities Pouch

In it I always bring among other:

specialised earplugs, a small spray with melatonin and a separate pouch for my glasses so I don’t crush them inside a seat pocket.

Before I Go to the Gate

A long flight is extremely heavy on my veins and especially my legs. My ankles swell easily. So before even reaching the gate, I do a whole sport regimen.

(No, no exercises.)

I walk.

As much as time allows.

I try to get in kilometres and hope my legs will gratefully remember my input once we are at 30,000 ft and won’t hurt as much.

Inflight: Creating My Micro-Private Climate

Once seated, I prepare my micro-private climate.

And always my own tea.

Why Do I Bring My Own Tea?

First, because I love it.

Second, it also serves as a hot-water bottle in the cold of the night.

I put it on my belly and it puts me to sleep in no time.

Sleep on the Plane

I have to say that the difference between me then and me now is mostly in my tools and in the fact that I now…

Well…

Sleep through the whole flight.

I’ve trained myself to sleep.

Not always, but it is doable.

The whole routine, from airport preparation through the flight and arrival, is all about how I put myself to sleep anywhere, whenever needed.

Sleep doesn’t begin when I close my eyes. The whole airport routine, together with adjusting my micro-private climate, is preparing me for it.

Preparing Mentally for the New Time Zone

Before I doze off, I take my wristwatch and manually change it to the new time zone. (Yes, I am still using an analogue watch.)

During the flight, I check the local time at the destination multiple times. It sounds silly and small, but my brain and my body react strongly to it.

The Last Hour Before Landing: Getting Human Again

About an hour before landing, I wake up. I really need that time for myself before we land.

I go to the bathroom with one mission:

getting human again.

That part always ends with my own Assam black tea. Then I usually have just enough time to get ready mentally.

If it is Cuba on the other side, I remember what the Malecón in Havana feels like at this time of day.

I insert the local SIM card, unplug my phone and go through the arrival details:

Who is waiting for me? Do I have their contact details ready?

We start descending and I start getting excited.

I can almost smell Cuba on the other side when, of course, I still can’t.

Do you have any interesting, unusual or useful travel rituals? Please reply and tell me. I would love to test them myself. And perhaps one day pass them on to someone else who needs them. Thank you.

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Alja