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02.05.2024 - 17:21 / cntraveler.com
If noise-canceling headphones don’t help you doze off, you may need to consider a more heavy-duty fix: sleeping pills for flights. Certainly, some flights don’t warrant sleeping aids—such as when you’re taking a short trip or traveling west against a time difference, says Aneesa Das, M.D., a sleep medicine specialist at the Ohio State University (at that point you may as well stay awake). But if you’ll be on a plane overnight and waking up in a vastly different time zone, logging some shuteye on the plane is crucial to arriving refreshed—or close enough to it.
That’s when sleeping pills can help. For most people, they're a reliable solution if they have trouble sleeping on planes, and they’re always a better option than ordering wine when the beverage cart rolls around. “Alcohol will allow you to fall asleep more quickly, however most people will then experience very disrupted and fragmented sleep quality,” says Thomas Kilkenny, M.D., director of the Institute of Sleep Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital.
Here's what you should know—according to medical experts—about the most common sleeping pills for flights, including side effects to be aware of before you pop one.
This article has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
Ambien—the most powerful option on this list—is available by prescription only and works as a sedative-hypnotic medication that slows your brain activity to make you feel very sleepy. It’ll knock you out good—maybe even too good. Some users experience retroactive amnesia, which means you could wake up mid-flight, have a full conversation with the flight attendant, and have no memory of it when morning comes, Das says.
Ambien can also lead to sleepwalking, which could result in some awkward bump-ins on the plane. “This is especially true if combined with alcohol or if not enough time is allowed for sleep,” Kilkenny says. He recommends having at least six or seven hours to sleep in order for the drug to metabolize, so avoid taking it on a short flight or when you have only a few hours to go before landing. But it's not all bad: Zolpidem (the generic name for Ambien) has been shown to fight off jet lag, per a 2018 review article published in Springer. Lunesta and Sonata are two other prescription-only sleep aids which work similarly to Ambien (they’re collectively known as Z-drugs).
Rozerem (the brand name for ramelteon) is another medication available by prescription, but it isn’t as aggressive as Ambien. “It’s a melatonin receptor stimulant and is unrelated to the Z-pills,” Kilkenny says. It may be a more attractive option for travelers as it reaches peak levels quickly and has a very short half-life, which means it won’t linger in your system
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