How do I survive a long flight?

A timeline for the flight — when to eat, sleep, drink and move — and the small kit that makes the difference between arriving wrecked and arriving usable.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 1 hr
Read: 4 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Set your watch to the destination time when you board and eat and sleep on that clock. Drink water steadily, go easy on alcohol and coffee, get up and walk roughly every couple of hours, and bring the four things that actually work: a neck pillow that supports the chin, an eye mask, ear plugs and warm layers.

A long flight is uncomfortable for three separate reasons — you cannot sleep properly, you dry out, and you do not move. Each has a different answer, and treating them together as one vague misery is why most flights are worse than they need to be. The other half of the job is landing in a state where the first day is usable, which is decided mostly by when you sleep rather than how much.

Safety

Long periods of immobility increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis. Move, walk and flex your ankles regularly, keep hydrated and avoid excessive alcohol. If you have a history of clots, a recent operation, are pregnant, or take medication that affects clotting, ask a GP or pharmacist about compression stockings and any precautions before flying — this is general comfort advice, not medical advice.

What you'll need

Neck pillow, eye mask and ear plugs
A refillable water bottle
Compression socks (optional)
Warm layers

A long flight on the destination's clock

Step by step

Set your watch to the destination time as you board.Every eating and sleeping decision for the rest of the flight follows from that clock rather than from UK time. This is the single most useful thing you can do for the first day at the other end.
Decide before take-off whether this is a sleeping flight.If it is night at the destination, plan to sleep and skip the first meal service. If it is daytime there, plan to stay awake, and do not accept a meal simply because it is offered.
Fill the water bottle after security and keep drinking.Cabin air is extremely dry. Steady sips throughout beat a large drink occasionally, and the cabin crew will refill a bottle. Dehydration is responsible for a good share of what people call jet lag.
Go easy on alcohol and caffeine.Both dry you out and both wreck the quality of what sleep you get. A drink to relax is fine; several is why people arrive feeling awful.
Get up and move roughly every couple of hours.A walk to the back and back, ankle circles and calf raises in the seat between times. Book an aisle seat if you intend to do this rather than climbing over people.
Dress in layers and expect to be cold.Cabins run cool overnight and airline blankets are thin. A warm layer and something over your feet does more for sleep than any gadget.
Use the actual sleep kit rather than hoping.An eye mask, because light is what keeps you awake; ear plugs or noise-cancelling headphones; and a neck pillow that stops your chin dropping to your chest. The chin drop is what wakes people every twenty minutes.
Move your seat properly and stake out the space early.Recline when the cabin does, put nothing in the footwell you might want later, and get the shoes off and something on your feet.
Look after your eyes, skin and mouth.Contact lenses out and glasses on, lip balm, moisturiser, and a toothbrush in the cabin bag. Cheap, tiny, and the difference between feeling human and not at landing.
Plan the arrival before you land.If you land in the morning at the destination, stay up until a normal local bedtime and get outside in daylight. If you land at night, go to bed. Fighting the local clock on day one is what turns two days into five.

Tips

Download everything you want to watch or read before leaving home. Inflight systems fail and airline wifi is unreliable and expensive.
Take snacks you actually like. Meal timings suit the airline, not you, and being hungry at three in the morning with nothing available is avoidable.
Eye mask and ear plugs are the two cheapest items with the biggest effect. Almost nobody who tries them properly goes back.

Common mistakes

Eating every meal that is offered — Meal service runs on the airline's schedule, not the destination's. Eating on the destination clock is a large part of arriving in reasonable shape.
Drinking to get to sleep — Alcohol brings on sleep and then fragments it, and it dehydrates you in air that is already very dry. It reliably makes the arrival worse.
Staying in the seat for the whole flight — Immobility is the one genuine health issue on a long flight, as well as the reason everything aches. A short walk every couple of hours costs nothing.

If it doesn't work

Ears painful on descent

Cause: Pressure not equalising, often worse with a cold — Fix: Swallow, yawn, chew or sip a drink continuously through the descent. A decongestant taken before descent helps if you are congested and it suits you.

Woken repeatedly while dozing

Cause: Head dropping forward, cabin light, and noise — Fix: A neck pillow worn round the front to stop the chin dropping, an eye mask and ear plugs. All three, not one of them.

Swollen ankles and stiff legs

Cause: Sitting still for hours — Fix: Walk regularly, do ankle circles hourly, and consider compression socks — particularly on flights over about six hours.

Questions people ask

How do I sleep on a plane?

Sleep on the destination's clock rather than when you feel like it, and use all three of an eye mask, ear plugs and a neck pillow worn round the front so your chin cannot drop. Warmth matters more than most people expect — cabins run cold overnight.

Should I drink alcohol on a long flight?

Sparingly. It dehydrates you in already very dry air and it fragments the sleep it appears to bring on, which is most of why people arrive feeling wrecked.

How often should I get up on a long flight?

Roughly every couple of hours, with ankle circles and calf raises in the seat in between. Immobility is the one thing on a long flight that is a genuine health matter rather than a comfort one.