Red Eye Tips
 

I have been an early riser my whole life, but have started doing more red eyes (I try to bid around them, but not always possible), and have not yet been successful in napping before the flight. I tried sleeping very late on the first one, and then was not remotely tired until van time, the second one I woke up early but still was not able to nap, and was more tired at van time. I was still FFD for all these flights.

Any suggestions on red eyes or napping would be helpful, thanks!

mountain dew and wifi

nap during the flight....
But melatonin worked good for me to get that nap in. Besides that coffee and books

Before I do a red-eye I stop somewhere at the airport and grab a big cup of coffee.

as far as a nap. Try taking a melatonin or something strong before you nap but make sure it has worn off well before your flight.

Melatonin is your friend when trying to nap.


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This is great info re:melatonin. I have never taken it, it’s not habit forming or anything is it? How much / when do you take it to avoid drowsiness?

I assume you’re talking about a red ey at the end of your flight. If so, wake up at normal time or slightly early. Get out and site see is applicable, get a work out in. Maybe have a beer at lunch assuming you comply with FARs and airline policy. Use towels, ironing board, extra pillows, etc to black out the curtains, get the room as cool as possible, and trick ******* your mind into thinking it’s evening. I shoot for a 6 hour nap. I don’t worry about it though, because worrying will cause you to stay awake. I’m definitely in the minority, I think most get a 1 hour nap or don’t even try.

leading red eye, ie first leg of the trip. I sleep in as much as possible. Commute in slightly early and get a crew room nap, or nap at home after dinner, if you live in base.

I use 3mg at home, if you use too much, your body can get used to it and stop producing it naturally. I take it 30 minutes to 1 hour before I want to sleep.

Nope. It’s a natural hormone your body secretes anyway. I do 3mg about 20-30 mins before I sleep. in my experience it lasts about 4 hours and no drowsiness afterwards. If you only have time for a 2-3 hour nap I would avoid it.

Yes, IIRC the FAA has guidelines on melotonin use. Personally I only use it to go to bed early for an early show in the wrong time zone. I give myself at least 8 hours before show time, that stuff will leave you groggy... I'd be afraid to use it for a nap. Best to do your own trial and error.

My pre-redeye routine is usually not to work out the day of, that will make me really sleepy later on (I can get away with some weights, but not cardio). I definitely plan on a good nap in the afternoon, but not into early evening... if I nap late, it will be hard to get up and I'll feel like I should be back in bed.

Cup of Joe at show time, and usually another approaching TOD to be alert on arrival. Don't overdo the Joe, better to be a little mellow than all spun up because you'll come down off that eventually. And hydrate too.

Eat healthy the day of, and go easy the night before too... crap food and alcohol will take the edge off.

It actually can be "habit forming" in the sense that if you supplement on a regular basis, your body will stop producing as much and then you're stuck with the supplements. For that reason, I try to limit it to once per week... first really early show of the trip.

I typically drink enough caffeine to get the caffeine sweats. That's when I know I'm ready to meet my show time. But in all seriousness, I find adequate hydration is extremely important. Trying to eat well and making sure I'm hydrated prior to a redeye or trip in general helps me a lot. Granted coffee de-hydrates you, it's a balancing trick.

I generally try for 4 liters of water per day when I'm flying. Seems to help keep me alert. Helps on red eyes. Coffee helps too. But the importance of hydration is underrated.

Sleep (as much as possible)
Eat (decently)
Exercise (cardio/HIIT)

As stated, stay hydrated with water and avoid caffeine 4hr before sleeping prior to the overnight duty period. After waking prior to the duty period, caffeine works great...the stronger the better.

As a cargo dog, 3mg melatonin doesn't seem to move the needle for me and really never has. I take 5 and sometimes 10mg with zero ill effect. It isn't Ambien, it won't put you to sleep and in my experience won't keep you asleep, but it will help you fall asleep. That said, I don't use it when I'm not working overnight and don't have issues sleeping without it.

YMMV, caveat emptor, etc...everybody's individual physiology is different and so are people's techniques for day sleeping and WOCL working.

Gotta jump on the melatonin bandwagon as well. It really works. I really have nothing more to add that hasn't already been said but melatonin works for me.

Thanks everyone, this is very helpful! I actually liked the flight itself…smooth air, direct routings, nice sunrise, finishing early on go-home day, etc. Just didn’t care for the negotiating with the sleep gods for the few hours before van time - melatonin it is!

My only problem with melatonin if I take it at bedtime is it wears off at about four hours and I’m wide awake; sort of like having a drink before bed, then waking up later.

I use it for a long nap when I’d like to crash for a few hours in the afternoon before a late show. For normal bedtime I go to sleep without it, and when I wake to use the restroom in the middle of the night I take one if I need to and have at least three-four hours before the alarm.

I generally wake up early the day before. Since I'm getting in late, that usually is 6ish hours of sleep. I get up, exercise in the morning, get out and just walk around. I don't let myself go back to my room until after lunch. By about 3p, I make it dark in my room. I'll watch a few shows or a chill movie. Then it's devices down by 5p. I skip dinner and try to bring it on the flight. It's something to do for the first 30 minutes after climb out. Have a cup of coffee handy and maybe a soda but I don't do any caffeine within an hour of landing unless I'm absolutely dragging. Otherwise I get jittery.

To the person who said alcohol, I HIGHLY recommend against it. It can prevent your brain from going into REM. Better to abstain.

Melatonin works great and I used to take it. But a captain brought up a good point that maybe you all can debunk for me. He basically said if we were to have an accident, there would be a deep dive into everything we did prior to the event, and perhaps even go through our suit case and see we have melatonin. This creating a situation of perhaps having taken something we shouldn’t have, or at least within a time frame we shouldn’t have. Seems the FAA says to wait 24 hours between taking it, and flying, which pretty much negates the use of it unless maybe your doing international flying

hey thanks for that. I’m back on the melatonin train then.

Great book that has several paragraphs on airline pilots. Discusses melatonin as well.
One of the best books on sleep I’ve read. Author is a professor of neuroscience at Berkeley. I did weekly redeyes for B6 for four straight years.
https://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Sleep-.../dp/1501144324

My redeye pro tips would be the 5 S's (I can't take credit, these were passed down to me). These have served me well doing multiple redeye's per month for years now:
S schedule shifting (stay up late, wake up early)
S segmented sleeping (multiple 4-5 hour sleep opportunities vs one long one)
S kip the caffeine day of (at least until show time)
S un exposure (stimulates natural melatonin production)
S leep opportunity (prepare and plan for good nap - 4-5 hours. But don't get worked up if you find sleep elusive.)

The final thing I'll add is a good workout, whatever that means to you. I always sleep better when I've had a good workout or been very active that day.

Same, but for most people you'll have trouble sleeping within 2-3 hours of a decent workout. If you have min rest with a really early show, might be tough to fit it all in.

Agreed. To be clear, I was advocating an early wakeup, followed by a good workout, a light breakfast, outside time and then a decent (but reasonable!) sized lunch approximately 1-2 hours before your planned nap opportunity.

A person I trust regarding health issues once told me that if you're choosing between sleep and exercise, always ALWAYS chose sleep. It will serve you far better throughout the day than getting a few extra reps/miles in.

There is nothing you can do. Even if you pre-sleep or nap, you’ll still be toast when you hit your WOCL.

The best thing is to nap in the seat for 20-30 ala “controlled rest”, like the rest of the entire world except our FAA doesn’t think our passengers are “ready” for that.

Totally agree about the “controlled rest”.

BS. You're going to take a hit during WOCL, but if you manage it it's a small hit. If you run yourself ragged in the 24 hours prior you're going to be a wreck.

It's a big mental game too, definitely learned that in the mil.

Do agree with that. I'd make it an hour.

some guys make it cruise.🥴

I agree with a lot of the advice in this thread, but also think there's some trial and error to figure out what works best for you. Personally, I try to leave the hotel curtains open when I get in the night before the redeye to cut my sleep short a few hours. I get up early and have a big meal, no coffee and avoid the gym. Take it easy, maybe walk around for a little while, then take 3 mg. or less of melatonin just before lunch time and aim for about a 6 hour nap and plan to get up a couple hours before van time, but set my alarm for an hour before van time. That way, if I get a good nap, I'll wake up early and have time for the gym, dinner, and coffee, but if it takes me a few hours to fall asleep, I'll still get good rest. Nap with an eye mask and earplugs, maybe play white noise from the phone if the hotel is noisy. I also bring a thermos (I really like Zojirushi) and try to get coffee downtown before going to the airport, in case there's no airport coffee available by the time we get there.

What works for me:

My body clock is on East Coast theatre. When I get into my West Coast layover that’ll be followed by a red eye home, I try to stay up as long as possible. I mean really late. Go out, have a drink. Play on the phone, listen to a podcast/music, whatever it takes to stay up. Fall asleep around 2-3 am pacific time. Sleep in until at least noon if possible. (3 pm EST). I’ll be landing at home at 6-7am the following day so that’s about 16 hours of wake time. No problemo. Got to keep experimenting to find what works for you. Good luck, I know how much it sucks to show up tired for a red eye. Reminds me of that Charles Lindbergh passage.

I always tell myself that when struggling on a red eye, or when I used to fly cargo. If that guy could do what he did, I can suffer for 5 hours.


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This is what I do, I limited my sleeps to no more than 4 1/2 hours then do what I need to shift my schedule. Get a good workout in after wake up and stay after. When it’s time to wind down, put the devices down and tv goes off.

This is what I do, I limited my sleeps to no more than 4 1/2 hours then do what I need to shift my schedule. Get a good workout in after wake up and stay after. When it’s time to wind down, put the devices down and tv goes off.

Another vote for Zojirushi!

which is what is infuriating about the quest to go to a single pilot. “Nope
, totally unsafe for one pilot out of 2 to nap, leaving a single pilot flying and one capable of flying pretty quickly…but yeah single pilot the whole flight, that’s fine”

I don’t think it will ever be safe to fly single pilot red eyes.

I recently tried a new method as far as napping before a RE. The evening before, I limit my sleep to 4-5 hours, even though my body obviously wants 8 hours. Once awake, I limit caffeine intake to maybe half a cup of coffee, or avoid it altogether. Then around 1500, I go down for that nap, and usually I am so dog tired by that point, I don’t have a problem getting in 5-6 hours of sleep. YMMV.

Exactly what I do. It's worked well for me for a long time now. The trick is to skip the caffeine. I'll usually have a cup of coffee when I wake up the morning before a redeye but always make sure not to have any more caffeine after about 10am that day.

Same. I am east coast based and most of our redeyes are out of LAS. Usually the night before I get to the hotel in LAS around 10pm pacific (1am domicile time). Since the hotel is right off the strip I'll get changed and go out, eat a small meal, and between that and the strip I'm wide awake. I'll stay out half the night and sleep half of the next day, with a nap right before I head back to the airport. 60% of the time it works every time.

I'm sure that would work for me, but I don't want to start taking QOL hits on my day off. Aside from not getting roaring drunk the day before a trip.

I do mostly avoid back-to-back redeyes, or mid-trip redeyes... so as long as I go into day one well rested and healthy I have a lot of momentum through the wee hours.

That's a QOL hit. Maybe worse.