How to Stay Awake on a Plane (and Land Ready for the Day)

The flight is the easy part. The hard part is the 14 hours after it: the taxi line, the meeting at 9, the rental car, the city you only have two days in. Knowing how to stay awake on a plane, and when to let yourself sleep on one, decides whether you walk off the jet bridge ready or spend the first afternoon face down in a hotel room. What follows comes from the CDC's travel guidance and published cabin air research.

How to stay awake on a plane when the cabin wants you asleep

Cabin lights go down after the meal service. Low light, steady engine noise and a warm blanket tell your body it's night, whatever the clock at your destination says. If it's daytime where you're landing, take the light back.

Open the window shade. In the CDC Yellow Book's jet lag chapter, light is what moves your body clock. On an eastward trip it says to get bright light in the early morning (shade open, no dark sunglasses) and to avoid light in the evening. On a westward trip it's the other way round, so you avoid bright light early in the morning.

Sit up. A fully reclined seat with a neck pillow is a bed, so keep the seat upright and the eye mask in your pocket until it's night where you're going.

Book the aisle seat and use it

The window seat is for sleepers. If staying awake is the plan, take the aisle. The CDC's travel page on long flights suggests an aisle seat so you can get up, and walking the cabin every 2 to 3 hours.

Take your empty water bottle on each walk and ask for a refill at the galley.

Water on board, the wine when you land

Cabin air is dry. A 2009 study in Building and Environment by Tengfei Zhang and colleagues put average relative humidity during flight at 10 to 20%, falling to around 6 to 8% on intercontinental flights, because the cabin keeps pulling in dry outside air at cruise. By hour five your mouth is papery and your eyes feel gritty.

Drink water steadily. The CDC says to stay hydrated on long trips because fluid loss can make jet lag feel worse, and it lists both alcohol and caffeine as drinks that dry you out. It also says alcohol tends to send you to sleep faster but breaks the sleep up later, which is the worst of both on a plane: a heavy, broken doze when you meant to stay up. Save the glass of wine for dinner at local time.

When to drink the coffee

The CDC's jet lag guidance suggests 200 mg of caffeine every 4 hours during daylight at your destination if you need it, and stopping 6 hours before your new bedtime. Caffeine's half-life is about 5 hours, so a cup at 4 pm is still half in your system at 9.

On an eastward flight, it says to take caffeine in the early morning. Going west, skip it early in the morning. If you plan to sleep for part of the flight, keep the in-flight cups to a minimum and have your first one about an hour before landing instead. If you'd rather not lean on the cabin coffee at all, we've written up coffee alternatives for energy that don't come with a crash.

How to stay awake after a long flight

The CDC's advice for westward trips is to stay up until bedtime at your destination. Being awake through the local day builds up sleep pressure, so sleep comes at the local night rather than at 3 pm.

If you have to nap, keep it to 20 to 30 minutes. The CDC says longer daytime naps at the destination get in the way of night sleep.

How to beat jet lag on arrival

Your body clock moves at its own pace. The CDC Yellow Book gives adjustment rates of about 1.5 hours a day after flying west and 1 hour a day after flying east, so a seven-hour eastward shift takes about a week to settle. A few things shorten the rough days:

• If you flew east, get bright daylight on your first mornings. If you flew west, keep early-morning light low (shades down, dark sunglasses).
• For a trip under 2 days, the CDC suggests staying on home time for sleep and meals.
• In the 2 to 3 days before you fly, shift bedtime an hour a day toward the new time zone (later for west, earlier for east).

A spray for the last hour before landing

The worst stretch is the descent: seatbelt sign on, lights low, a meeting or a long drive waiting at the other end. This is where we reach for Dragon Breath.

It's chilcuague extract in a 50 ml mouth spray. Chilcuague (Heliopsis longipes, also called golden root) is a root from Central Mexico, wild-harvested from growth zones the Mara team selects with the help of local elders, and dual-extracted in organic solutions. Mexican ethnobotanists have recorded the root being chewed and used as a spice, and there's more on that history in our guide to chilcuague root and where it comes from.

One spray. For a second it tastes earthy and a little peppery. Within about 10 seconds a bright, electric buzz runs across your tongue and mouth, and then your mouth floods. After five hours of 10% humidity, that rush of saliva is the best thing that's happened since takeoff. A clean, fresh feeling lingers after it, and you come out of it switched on for the walk up the jet bridge. One customer, on camera, after their first spray, said only this: "Oh wow, the saliva flow."

Dragon Breath – Chilcuague Extract

50 ml mouth spray. Wild-harvested chilcuague root, dual-extracted. 250+ sprays.

Add to bag

Packing it in your carry-on

The TSA's liquids rule allows containers of 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less in a quart-sized bag in your carry-on. At 50 ml, the Dragon Breath bottle is half that limit. It goes in the clear liquids bag at security and back in your jacket pocket once you're through.

A spray suits a plane better than anything loose. There's nothing to measure or mix on a tray table, and one press is all it takes. The extract stays sealed and protected from air and light in Miron violet glass, which adds significant longevity to the quality and potency of the extract, even in a bottle that rides around in a jacket pocket. There are 250+ sprays in a bottle. Start with one spray. Once you know the feeling, you can go up to five.

Dragon Breath considerations

If you're pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or allergic to plants in the daisy family, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions people ask about staying awake on flights

Should I sleep on a red-eye if I have to work the next day?

Sleep for the first part if you can, then stay awake for the last hour or two. Keep any nap after landing to 20 to 30 minutes.

Can I take a mouth spray through airport security?

Yes, as long as it's 3.4 ounces (100 ml) or less and goes in your quart-sized liquids bag. Dragon Breath is a 50 ml bottle.

Why does my mouth get so dry on planes?

Cabin humidity averages 10 to 20% during flight and can drop to around 6 to 8% on long intercontinental routes, according to a 2009 study in Building and Environment.

How long does it take to get over jet lag?

The CDC Yellow Book puts the body clock's adjustment at about 1 hour a day after flying east and about 1.5 hours a day after flying west.