Staying awake while flying

MD11Pilot said:
PS...there is nothing so dark as the middle of the Pacific on a moonless night. We turn the cockpit lights on and chat about women, the latest divorce, politics, religion, systems, the contract, the stupidity of management.
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Occasionally I'm shocked to see what looks like a group of brightly lit baseball diamonds in the middle of the pacific. Turns out they're the Asian fishing fleets plundering the seas.
 
I saw this TV show once... can't even remember what show it was but the villain was brainwashing people by putting them in a sensory deprivation chamber and making them go insane from the lack of stimulation... then one of the heroes in the show was able to get through it without being brainwashed because he had chewing gum in his mouth and was able to concentrate on this.

When I was working an office job, I had this staying awake problem too. I was really bored.... I took up chewing gum, having remembered this TV show. It can help keep you from falling asleep but then your jaw gets tired....
 
I'm still curious as to why the OP needs to remain awake during flight. I trust it is not for any security reason such as being an air marshal since he previously made this post.

He mentions having paranoid thoughts and other untrue perceptions and being on Abilify. That would not seem to mesh very well with being in a security or safety sensitive position.
 
Never felt particularly interested enough to remain awake during cruise as an airline passenger. Sleeping through the nightmare of tiny seats and cattle car human behavior makes the time pass much more quickly.
 
labbadabba said:
I've probably fallen asleep on 5% of the commercial flights I've taken. I just can't sleep on a plane, or in a car, or on a train...
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Sorry for your misfortune. I've had two good naps, eaten twice and watched a movie while crossing the Pacific (on each if several round trips). I've successful slept on (commercial) planes, trains and automobiles, as well as buses, boats and ships. Haven't managed to sleep in a taxi yet, simply due to limited exposure. And in trucks, I'm usually driving, not riding.
 
My job (for years) keeps me on airplanes (as a passenger) almost 40 weeks a year with long days and very early hours, I don't care who you are, in that kind of situation, you learn to sleep whenever the opportunity (no matter how small) presents itself...a 737 to some can be like a California king to others...
 
wanttoflysoon said:
I am not a pilot, however, I fly on an airplane as a passenger frequently. I have a requirement to stay awake during flights and am not successful in meeting this requirement. I do not believe it is due to a medical condition, I believe that it is the motion of flight combined with the ample amount of white noise is an environment that induces drowsiness.

What do you do to stay awake during flights? Do you find it difficult to stay awake during flights? Thanks.
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To stay awake during the flight? Rest the night before. Falling asleep during a flight, even as a passenger, is an indication that you are sleep deprived. If you were a pilot, it is a grounding condition.

If you have trouble resting, talk to your doctor about it. Get tested for OSA.
 
bflynn said:
If you were a pilot, it is a grounding condition.
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Falling asleep on an airplane is a grounding condition, how so? Did you read MD-11 pilots post above?
 
Cooter said:
Falling asleep on an airplane is a grounding condition, how so? Did you read MD-11 pilots post above?
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Involuntarily falling asleep during the day is a grounding condition, yes. If you are so tired that you get onto an airplane, relax into those big cushy seats and then fall asleep, you're not sleeping well enough at night.

Boredom and falling asleep at night when you're trying to work against your sleep schedule is a different thing.
 
bflynn said:
... into those big cushy seats.
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What the hell airline do you fly on?! LOL

As far as the generalization goes that someone is sleep deprived and that's a medical condition if they fall asleep on an airliner goes... sometimes sleep deprivation is chosen, not medical.

I'd book insane flight times into and out if customer sites back when I traveled extensively specifically so I *would* sleep through the hell of air travel. And most of that was back before TSA and airport retardedness and even bigger seat pitches than today.

You know, back when the seat recline function didn't start fistfights? LOL.

Work was often also done overnight like most telecom and IT work.

So yeah, sleep deprived on the airliner was a planned event. Finish work at dawn, hop the earliest flight out, and sleep all the way home.

A great way to ignore the idiots and tourists on most flights who weren't flying weekly or more than weekly to customer sites.

Standard business travel briefing: Sit up, shut up, buckle up, and don't throw up. Exit door is there and there. Zzzzz. Best possible use of time.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Occasionally I'm shocked to see what looks like a group of brightly lit baseball diamonds in the middle of the pacific. Turns out they're the Asian fishing fleets plundering the seas.
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Ha Ha Ha
I remember my over water check out and passing just south of Japan and headed east to Anchorage. I was looking out the window and at the chart a couple of times and the check pilot said "are we over water or over land?"...I replied "the chart says water, my eyes say land", there were that many boats that it looked like a sparsely populated town.
 
As a pilot I have plenty of things I can do to stay awake. Fly that airplane, check weather, do various pilot calculations, play "could i make it there" (assuming engine-out) with the airports I pass, look for off-airport landing spots, micromanage the mixture setting, prep or brief my arrival and approach procedures, play some pokemon go, compare actual performance to book performance and rationalize the difference.

Wait... What?
 
On commercial flights I have developed a fun game. Usually the person next to you wants to do some chatting and gum flapping. Well then, bobs your uncle. Chris will randomly pick a job I don't do, like let's say an electrician? And then I proceed to fill them full of useless facts that are just crap about being an electrician. These are complete strangers next to you so why not play the game. Makes the the go by a bit faster and keeps the brain working.
 
denverpilot said:
sleep deprived on the airliner was a planned event. Finish work at dawn, hop the earliest flight out, and sleep all the way home.
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I do similar things - up at 3am, work until 1, then catch a 3pm home and I sleep on the flight - intentionally. But I won't be PIC in that condition and if someone habitually falls asleep involuntarily on an airplane, neither should they.
 
I just installed an audio jack linked to my intercom. Now I listen to podcasts, TED talks and so on to pass the time on long flights. It's a massive improvement.
 
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