BBC Focus Magazine

[Isee]

I travel a lot for my work and noticed that I always fall asleep while the plane is taxiing, no matter how hard I try to stay awake. Yet once the plane is rolling down the runway I am fully awake and sharp.
I suspect it's something to do with the aircon/oxygen, but am not certain.

Cheers

[M Paul Lloyd]

Or your self preservation instincts are kicking in?
I would say that the big comfy seat and enclosed space possibly contribute to the feeling of tiredness and cabin oxygen/nitrogen/CO2 levels are usually carefully monitored but only to help ensure that an as near to normal a mix is maintained, it is just plain old air with nothing added or taken away, just pressurised.

Unless of course you are riding shot-gun in something more exotic and possibly military??

[The Beige Avenger]

Or your self preservation instincts are kicking in?
I would say that the big comfy seat and enclosed space possibly contribute to the feeling of tiredness and cabin oxygen/nitrogen/CO2 levels are usually carefully monitored but only to help ensure that an as near to normal a mix is maintained, it is just plain old air with nothing added or taken away, just pressurised.
.....

It's surely a lot drier than normal air... isn't it?

[Isee]

Or your self preservation instincts are kicking in?
I would say that the big comfy seat and enclosed space possibly contribute to the feeling of tiredness and cabin oxygen/nitrogen/CO2 levels are usually carefully monitored but only to help ensure that an as near to normal a mix is maintained, it is just plain old air with nothing added or taken away, just pressurised.

Unless of course you are riding shot-gun in something more exotic and possibly military??

why would the instincs be kicking in?
I fly light aircraft myself (recreationally) and feel no drowsiness (apart from when i had to take off anf land 20 times in a row) whatsoever.

I was sure there was something in the air as I fall asleep before take off without fail and fully wake up by the time the airplane lifts off...

[Shadowwolf]

Nothing out of the ordinary and probably not instincts either, you're sat there doing nothing especially if it's early morning, there is a gentle rocking motion, you get drowsy then the engines spin up to full power, the thing starts moving fast, you're pressed back into your seat and you wake up because of the activity.

[M Paul Lloyd]

As in the instinct to fall asleep in a comfortable esituation which you are not actually in control of, like being in the back seat of a rather comfy car perhaps............?
Perhaps I should have clarified that beforehand? Sorry.

I was sure there was something in the air as I fall asleep before take off without fail and fully wake up by the time the airplane lifts off...

Are you thinking of some sort of gas here? Like Halothane perphaps? If so, definitley not.

As for the air being drier, yes it might well be so as it will more than likely be passed through a heat exchanger and dehumidifier as the last thing you want is fog forming when the aircraft depressurises at the end of a flight, which is something I have witnessed on pressuriation tests of military aircraft.

Light aircraft are not genearlly pressurised in my experience so different rules apply.

[Isee]

Haha no i didn't mean gas, I just thought maybe there is a different oxygen co2 composition (not dangerously different, just different).
I had the "pleasure" of crashlanding in a pressurised aircraft, I definitely agree that fog formation is the last thing you want then

[M Paul Lloyd]

I am not aware of any system that would deliberatley alter the gas mix of cabin air Isee, it is just air, but cleaned, dried and temerature adjusted to make things more comfortable.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

[Piesander]

I always have trouble sleeping on planes. I only ever succeeded once and we had an emergency before I fell asleep.

I worked in a freight airline and had been working 15-16 hour days. I was in the cockpit in a jump seat when the hydraulic failure lights came on. the co-pilot jumped up and went behind me to a hydraulic reservoir behind my seat. I looked over my shoulder as he attacked it with a crescent. There was red fluid spraying over the cockpit and being a pilot myself i realised it meant that lowering undercarriage might be a problem.

Well no sooner had I thought that then I nodded off and awoke on finals for the destination airport. The buggers never bothered to wake me and tell me what happened.

[Shadowwolf]

I fell asleep whilst watching an in-flight movie, there was a loud explosion in the movie about the same time the plane hit some heavy turbulence

[Healerman]

I always have trouble sleeping on planes.

I sympathise totally. Try as I might, I cannot sleep on a plane, which certainly limits my activities at the end of a long-haul flight.

It's probably the active environment kicking the sympathetic nervous system into fight or "flight" mode.

I was inbound to the UK when we heard the news of 9/11. I didn't hear much snoring after that.