Plane ride! No Sleep! HELP!

I didn't sleep the night before Halloween. Halloween Day jacked up on caffiene, Halloween night had two shots and a beer and a pack of cigarettes (usually it takes me two days), and now no sleep all night. It's 6am and I'm going on an hour-long plane ride to visit my brother who is a Marine and has four days off to spend with family aka me and my parents!

I'm pretty jittery, pretty wired, pretty loopy...I need a quick fix to keep me calm on the plane (plane rides scare me) but enough energy to make it through the day to be perky and cheerful for my brother. I'm guessing no caffiene. Maybe tea? And any tricks to be calm on the plane? It's the take off and landing that scare me...and any mention of the word turbulance. O.o

Thanks!!!

How did it go?

No good solutions. I love take offs & landings on planes the rest is boring (usually). Go figure because I was on a plane that aborted take off at the very last moment because of an engine warning light & everything went flying to the front of the plane....I still love the powerful feeling on takeoff.

Lack of sleep....sounds like excitement of all that has been going on in your life got the best of your ability to sleep. No good way to stay awake if/when the body hits crash. Hope you made it through & enjoyed the visit with your brother.

Eek... that sounds like a lot of not sleeping. Can you take a nap when you get there?

No good ideas for chemicals to fix you up, or how to deal with the plane ride... I used to be *terrified* of turbulence. Not so much mentally, but my body reacted as if I were about to crash - lots of adrenaline and stress chemicals being released.

I found a forum for people training for their pilot's license and someone asked about this. One of the responses was to think of it like being in a boat... turbulence is literally just "waves" in the air. If you were in a boat, the waves would make you go up and down a bit, but wouldn't really be much of a threat. The waves in the air are similar...

So, on my last flight, when we hit turbulence, I did 3 things:
1. Imagined that it was a boat, and just some waves that we were gliding over
2. Mentally played a game with myself, guessing how long it would last (about 10 minutes), and I was right!
3. Had a distraction - after I guessed how long it would last, I pulled out a tablet and played games, to distract myself from paying attention to the turbulence. If I noticed it, I thought, "yup, just waves".

Surprisingly, it helped me. Not sure if it helps you, but give it a try (if it's not too late).

Hope you enjoy your trip!

One thing I do to help stay awake, know it might sound a bit strange, but a spearmint lifesaver always help me stay awake when needed.

Hmmmm thinking the plane to be a boat in waves could be bad if one has a problem getting sea sick...that may not work for everyone.

whoa... black tea is worse than coffee for caffience.

By now you have made the trip out and are on your way back. I hope all worked out and the visit went well. Did you manage to settle down before the flight. I don't fly well myself; I too am cranked up before hand. I have found if the flight attendants are aware of my anxiety they are great at trying to keep me cool. They often get me a bottle of water and a pillow - holding on to something helps. And, like the crazy person I am, I strike up a conversation with the complete stranger beside me.

Striking up a conversation with the stranger next to you is a DBT skill called distraction......it really helps with anxiety levels if talking to strangers is something you can do well.

As a former Flight Attendant, I can tell you I couldn't sleep on a plane either, even though I worked on them 4 days a week. I was always aware or semi aware of people's anxiety about flying and usually offered free alcoholic beverages to those customers to help calm them down. I've also sat with them (totally against safety regulations) during take off and landing and not in my jumpseat. I tried to be good to those with anxiety. Much of my MI didn't hit me until I got out of flying.