Airline pilots, tips for sleeping?

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SecureAsk8297@reddit

I gotta try that. I've been doing it wrong all this time!

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PilotGoggles@reddit

Caffeine, alcohol, melatonin, pornhub

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slendermanboxedwine@reddit

Yeah ngl it’s rough. Room as dark as possible, ear plugs, melatonin, and lights out trying to sleep at 7pm

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Flimsy-Ad-858@reddit

What's your experience been with melatonin on overnights? I personally don't touch it because I've heard nasty stories of people getting dependent on it for sleep in general.

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Worried-Ebb-1699@reddit

Avoid melatonin. So many reasons to not use it in our line of work.

Eat healthy. Hydrate. Avoid fast food, meal prep well.

Exercise.

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Guysmiley777@reddit

Don't doomscroll social media on your phone at night.

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Flimsy-Ad-858@reddit

Minecraft soundtrack.

Dead ass serious.

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It’s different for everyone, but I’m normally able to fall asleep quite easily unless I napped during the day or something. It always seems to be those min rest days though where I’ll wake up in the middle of the night because I’m thirsty or something and I won’t be able to go back to sleep. On those days I just accept that I’ll be tired.

You got some great tips and I second working out, but good luck getting a workout in when your overnight is 11 hours and you get to the hotel with 10 hours of rest left.

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ABobLoblawLawBlogger@reddit

Stay active as much as you can and wear an eye mask

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YOURE_GONNA_HATE_ME@reddit

Not an airline pilot. But spend a lot of time traveling across a bunch of timezones along with working 12 hour night shifts for over a decade.

Routine is critical. Do the same thing every single night. No matter if you’re in your house, a hotel, your girlfriend’s house, wherever. If the last thing you do before you decide to go to bed at home is brush your teeth and turn out the light? That’s what you do. You jerk off? That’s what you do.

You need to carry that same rhythm with you. Within that should be limiting screens prior to bed. Reducing caffeine intake in the second half of your day. Cool, dark room. Sleep masks are beneficial as they act as a trigger, even when not needed. One thing that I do is essentially envision the same thing, every single night. As soon as that hits, I’m out cold. Sounds crazy but I used to flip my sleep 12 hours every 4 days for a long time. I could sleep 8 hours and go back to sleep 4 hours later for an additional 4 or 5 hours, no problem.

If you find yourself restless, get up, take a piss, drink a little water, and try again. Stay AWAY from the screens. They’re sleep cancer. But also accept, sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I’ve had 16 hour days where I’ve slept like shit and 12 hour days with my feet up where I slept like you wouldn’t believe. But when I’ve followed my earlier recommendations, 99 times out of 100 I’m good.

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blizzue@reddit

I got a mini sound machine for white noise. It’s small but potent. Sleep mask for anytime I think I need to sleep past sunrise.

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Useful-Photograph744@reddit

Different things work for different people. Try working out before bed but definitely watch out for eating close to when you want to go to bed. Use a sleeping mask or white noise if that helps you just make sure to set two alarms. I usually set one for when I want to get up and one for 5 min later. I would also set one on company EFB to make sure nothing whacky happens and you miss your show.

Trust me though this job will tire you out and sometimes you will just be able to crash once you hit that pillow.

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KCPilot17@reddit

Just stay in a good workout routine. Everything else will come.

I promise after a 5k and 5 legs, you will be dying for sleep.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

As someone very new to this, going from being a CFI to starting at my first regional and soon dealing with minimum rests, one thing that’s worrying me is sleep.
Do you guys have any tips for simply falling asleep easier instead of just laying there in bed? Right now I make my own schedule, so I don’t stress as much if I don’t sleep perfectly, but I’m worried about adjusting to constantly changing schedules and overnights once I’m at the airlines. What worked for you guys/ works right now. Any advice appreciated!

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