Some thoughts and discussions from me.
5 Things Not to Do to When Flying on a Red Eye
Hey loves– Happy Friday!
I’ve been enjoying my time in Florida this week so far! I’m down here visiting my parents – I haven’t visited since last Christmas – and it’s been great. And for the first time, I’m down here when it’s raining in Colorado! It’s been amazing weather in Boulder, but on the day (night? morning? We’ll get to that in a second 😉 I left, it started a raining streak, and I think it’s supposed to continue through tomorrow.
Anyway, it’s been sort of a working vacation, since my plate is pretty full right now. So, I’ve been waking up around 6 and working until 9a when my parents wake up and get ready. Then I’ve been going to the beach with my dad or the gym with my mom, swimming in the pool, and then working again for an hour or two in the afternoon, then joining my family again for happy hour, dinner, and relaxing, and then working another hour before I go to bed.
It’s working for me, plus – I’m on the east coast!! Living over on the west side of the country tends to make me feel like I’m a little behind, since many of my clients are on Eastern time.
So let’s get back to that flight. After a full day of training clients in the gym, and then programming, emailing, and setting up consults for my online clients back home, I had plans to head to Florida – at 11:59pm. My first red eye.
For the record, my options were extremely limited when choosing flight times – either 11:59p or 5:20a. I figured I’d get the chance to sleep only for a few hours either way, and both were the same price, so I went with the former.
Spoiler alert: this post is NOT one of those where someone does something once and claims to be an expert. I’m actually kind of vehemently against that. Before I started training clients, I trained friends for free, and before I ever started training online clients, I trained in person for several years (and then trained friends online for free after that.) But now I’m off on a tangent.
Back to the red eye and being an expert. This is actually, it’s quite the opposite. It’s kind of like that time I moved across the country, did quite a few things wrong, and then shared what NOT to do when moving across the country.
5 Things Not to do When Flying on a Red Eye
1.Forget to schedule in a nap the day of your flight.
I trained clients in the gym until about noon that morning, and had plans to go home and nap for an hour or two just to log some extra Zzz’s. But…I’m a wee bit obsessed – passionate, rather – with my job and my clients and worked all day instead. I love what I do, but I really needed that nap. I came to regret the decision to forgo my nap around 8p when I was getting sleepy, and had to leave for the airport an hour later.
2. Assume you’ll sleep just fine on the flight.
HA! I usually sleep juuuust fine on flights. In fact, as soon as the motor starts to hum, I’m out. So I figured that I’d obviously sleep well on a flight that takes off at midnight – 2.5 hours past my normal bedtime. Psyche. It took me a good 45 minutes to feel sleepy on a flight that was 3.5 hours long.
3. Take a natural sleep aid when you get to the gate.
Uh, yeah. I thought, hey! Just in case, I’ll take this year melatonin cocktail pill. That’ll really put me out. Well, it made me sleepy, but then we had a 20 minute delay in boarding, and I was just standing at the gate about to dose off. Apparently the “fall-asleep-now” phase passed before I got to my seat.
4. Forget about even the chance of getting motion sickness.
You know how I said I felt sleepy 45 minutes into the flight? Well, it was a little bit of a bumpy flight, so I also had some major nausea going on. At one point I even got the sweats and had to get up to go to the bathroom because I thought I was going to get sick. So, at the time I finally got sleepy, I was also so sick that closing my eyes made me feel HORRIBLE. I was fighting exhaustion AND motion sickness…not a good combination LOL
5. Forget to brush your teeth before leaving.
I brush my teeth normally right before heading to bed. Since that didn’t happen that night, I didn’t think to do it before I headed out to the airport. About 30 minutes into the flight, I regretted my forgetfulness, and of course, I also forgot my gum 🙂
Soooo, yeah! I hope I don’t get another chance at a red eye flight to make it better, but if I do, I’ll make sure NOT to do the things above 😉
Some things I did right:
- bought and brought a neck pillow
- wore my savasana wrap that doubles as a blanket
- brought ear plugs and downloaded several podcasts
- brought an eye mask
- brought a good attitude 🙂 (always gotta have this on hand!)
Tell ME: Have you ever flown red eye?? What’s your best (worst?) airplane/airport horror story??
I’m going to have to look into a savasana wrap! That sounds amazing.
But that stinks that the flight didn’t go so well 🙁 Even though you’re working a lot, hopefully you get some time in Florida to make up for it and get some Z’s!
It’s a few years old, but I think they have a similar one at lululemon there now 🙂
Sorry your flight wasn’t that smooth. I am a nervous flier and can never sleep on a plane. I can’t imagine fighting sleep and nausea at the same time.
Have a wonderful time with your parents. Visits with my parents are few and far between, so I hope you get to enjoy lots of quality family time down there! Catch up on some sleep, too.
Thanks, lady! XO
I haven’t, but I have done over night flights, and on the last one I didn’t bring a neck pillow. Never again. They might not be fun to carry around, but they are so worth it.
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They ARE kind of a pain to haul around – but yes, worth it!
This made me laugh. Considering every flight I do is at least 21-22 hours, I think that makes me a red-eye expert! Haha 😉 Although I don’t really think you can call those long haul flights red-eyes. I can’t sleep a wink on planes, but I’m luckily a bit of a freak when it comes to sleep (I never go to bed before 1-2am, and I can cope just fine on a couple of hours of sleep) so I never struggle or even get jet lag. Florida looks beautiful!
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Ha! Yes, you definitely have some experience in this department. Ah man, I’m the opposite– I need 8 hours or else I need a nap the next day! 😛
Yes indeed have been on a red-eye from Hawaii to San Diego. For me, it’s and incredibly restless, sleepless night as I can’t sleep sitting up. I sort of sleep in increments of 20 – 30 min. My husband on the other hand is out cold before the plane starts heading down the run way.
Monica.
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So sorry to hear that you had to fly a red eye but I actually preferred that flight when I lived in Cali and would visit family in Fl. It was often times less crowded and cheaper!
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I feel like we take more red eye flights now that we live west, never used to do it in the east. Coming back from Hawaii we left at 9PM and arrived in Salt Lake at 7AM. I thought we were golden because we bought first class (on points), but no lay-flat beds!! No neck pillow and I just couldn’t sleep. Ugh!
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Ah man!! Yeah, these seated didn’t even recline. Oh, Frontier…
I’ve never flown first class, but I think if I’m ever on a 6+ hour flight, I’d spring for it! :-X
Midcons are TOUGH. When I worked in airline revenue management, I was responsible for JFK/BOS-DEN and JFK-SLC. I always had to dump inventory like crazy on the 1am flights, because they’re too short to be true red eye flights, but they’re still at really crappy times. Meanwhile, on transcons (e.g., Cali to East Coast) I can sleep like a baby!
Yes yes YES to neck pillow and eye mask… those are a must for plane sleeping! Like you, I pretty much am never in first class.