How to Sleep on a Plane: Long-Haul Tips for Flights From Australia

Working out how to sleep on a plane matters more from Australia than almost anywhere else. Fourteen hours to Los Angeles, seventeen to London via a stopover, and you land either ready for the day or wrecked for three. This guide covers choosing a seat, deciding when to sleep based on where you're going, masks and earplugs, why alcohol backfires at altitude, and how to wake before landing without an alarm going off in a cabin full of sleeping people.

The short answer: decide before you board whether this flight is a "night" or a "day" in your destination's time zone, and sleep or stay awake accordingly. Pick a window seat away from galleys and toilets, bring an eye mask, earplugs and a neck support, skip the alcohol, and set a silent vibrating alarm for an hour before landing so you wake calmly without disturbing the row. Expect a couple of days to fully adjust once you land.

Decide when to sleep before you board

The mistake most people make is sleeping whenever they feel tired. On a long haul from Australia, that usually means dozing through the whole flight and arriving at 7am local time already slept out.

The Sleep Health Foundation's advice is that for trips of a day or two you should stay on home time, but for longer trips you should switch to destination time as soon as possible: change your watch when you board and time meals and sleep to the place you're going (source). Better Health Channel puts it simply: sleep on the plane as if you're already in the destination time zone (source).

In practice:

Flight	Destination time on arrival	Plan
Sydney to Los Angeles (overnight, ~14h)	Early morning, same date	Sleep the middle block, wake 1 to 2 hours out
Melbourne to Doha or Dubai (~14h)	Early morning or evening, depends on departure	Match destination night
Perth to London (~17h, daytime departure)	Early morning	Stay awake first half, sleep second half
Brisbane to Singapore (~8h, daytime)	Afternoon or evening	Mostly stay awake, nap only
Return from Europe (arrive morning)	Morning	Sleep as much of the final leg as you can

Healthdirect notes that travelling east tends to be harder on the body than travelling west (source), so flights home to Australia from Europe or the Middle East, and flights to the US, deserve the most planning. For what to do after you land, see jet lag tips for Australians.

Choosing a seat

Seat choice is half the battle in economy.

• Window gives you a wall to lean on and nobody climbing over you.
• Away from galleys and toilets. Light, chatter and queues last all night.
• Not the last row if seats there don't recline fully.
• Forward of the wing is often quieter than behind the engines, though cabins vary.
• Exit row gives legroom but it's a thoroughfare and the armrests often don't lift.
• Bulkhead means nobody reclines into you, but that's where the bassinets go.

If you can't choose, check in early and ask at the gate.

Your in-flight sleep kit

1. Eye mask. Cabin lights, screens and sunrise through someone else's window are the main enemies. See do sleep masks work?
2. Earplugs or noise-cancelling headphones. Aircraft noise is constant and loud, and earplugs have good evidence for protecting sleep from noise.
3. Neck support that holds your head upright rather than letting it fall forward.
4. Layers. Cabins run cold at night.
5. Water bottle. Healthdirect and Better Health Channel both advise staying well hydrated, since dehydration worsens jet lag.
6. A silent alarm, so you're not relying on the crew or the breakfast trolley to wake you. More below.
7. Seatbelt over the blanket so crew don't wake you to check it.

Better Health Channel also suggests moving around the cabin and eating light, frequent meals.

Alcohol, caffeine and sleeping tablets

A glass of wine to help you nod off is the most common piece of plane advice and probably the worst.

A 2024 study in the journal Thorax put 48 healthy adults aged 18 to 40 in either a sleep lab or an altitude chamber set to cruising cabin pressure, and gave some the equivalent of two beers or two glasses of wine before sleep. At cabin pressure, alcohol dropped blood oxygen to a median of about 85 per cent and pushed heart rate to nearly 88 beats per minute during sleep, compared with just over 88 per cent and under 73 beats per minute without alcohol. Deep sleep fell to 46.5 minutes, against 67.5 minutes with neither alcohol nor altitude (source). These were young, healthy people.

The Sleep Health Foundation adds that alcohol may help you drop off but worsens sleep across the night, and that caffeine takes about 20 minutes to work and lasts up to four hours, so avoid it within a couple of hours of planned sleep. Sleeping tablets are best minimised. See does alcohol help you sleep? for the fuller picture. Melatonin may help re-set your body clock, but talk to your GP or pharmacist first; see melatonin in Australia.

Waking before landing without the noise

You want to be awake an hour or so before landing: time for the toilet, water, a stretch and a clear head before immigration. Three ways people usually try:

• Ask the crew. Reliable on some airlines, forgotten on others.
• Phone alarm. Loud in a quiet cabin, wakes your row, and if you're wearing earplugs you may not hear it anyway.
• A vibrating alarm on your wrist. Silent, felt only by you, and it works through earplugs. Set it for destination time, pull the mask up and wake calmly while everyone around you sleeps on.

The third is the same trick that works in hostel dorms; see hostel alarm without waking others. If you need to wake for the flight itself, see how to wake up for an early flight.

When to see your GP

If you have a heart or lung condition, sleep apnoea or you're pregnant, talk to your GP before a long haul flight, especially about alcohol, sleeping tablets and melatonin. This guide is general information, not medical advice.

Where the Sovune Nudge fits

We make the Sovune Nudge, a silent vibrating wristband alarm, so we're not neutral. On a plane it does one job: wakes you quietly at the time you chose.

• Silent. No speaker, no sound, no light, so nobody in your row knows it went off.
• Wakes you with vibration on your wrist, starting as a gentle tap and building through three intensity levels, so you're not jolted awake in your seat.
• Works with earplugs in, because it uses touch, not sound.
• Set on the band, no phone needed, so it works in flight mode and across time zones. Three alarms, so you can set one for landing and one for your first morning.
• Up to 14 days per charge and under 20 grams. It recharges via USB.

It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Quick answers

Should I sleep on the plane? Only if it's night time where you're going. Change your watch when you board and sleep to the destination clock.

Where's the best seat to sleep on a plane? A window seat away from galleys and toilets, and not in a row where the recline is limited.

Does alcohol help you sleep on a plane? No. At cabin pressure it lowers blood oxygen, raises heart rate and cuts deep sleep, even in young healthy people.

How do I wake up before landing without disturbing anyone? Wear a vibrating alarm set to destination time. It's silent and works with earplugs in.

For every type of silent alarm compared, see our complete guide to vibrating alarms in Australia.

See the Sovune Nudge →