Sleeping (or rather, not sleeping) on planes

It’s really too bad that taking red eye flights on Friday nights are a great way to get to the East Coast on a Saturday without missing any work, because I cannot sleep on planes, and I’ve been taking a lot of these incredibly painful flights recently.

Only once have I slept on a plane, and then I only slept about four or five hours. I was coming back from England (to Seattle), and I’m frankly a little amazed I even made it on the plane. Here’s the scenario: My flight left England on Thursday morning (GMT), so I got up early on Wednesday morning to take a trip with friends to Beachy Head, where I had been once before at the beginning of my study abroad program.

I had an incredibly great day, good pub lunch, went out in the evening to the pubs (as you do), and stayed out until around 5am, at which point I was locked out of my friend’s flat, where I was then sleeping for my last few days in town.

So, locked out, tired, and knowing that I needed to be awake in about two hours so that I could get a ride to the bus stop that would then take me to Heathrow, and knowing that I was not the only person leaving in the morning so people were just bound to come outside sooner or later, I balled up my jacket and laid down on the pavement right outside the door. I tried unsuccessfully to sleep.

Sure enough, someone popped their head out a few hours later, and I went inside to pack my stuff. Got to the bus. Stayed awake long enough to get on the plane. Got into my seat and…woke up somewhere over the Atlantic.

My point being, if I’m going to sleep on a plane, I have to be literally dying of exhaustion, which I will not be tonight, as I board the flight that will take me to Washington DC, and next Tuesday’s inauguration.