Falling Asleep When You're on the Road

Sleepwalking runs in my family.  My mom and my sister have both had some very interesting "sleep events" in their history.  One time, I found my mom in the kitchen late at night.  She was sitting at the table in a pitch dark kitchen with a jar of peanut butter on the table and a spoon in her hand.  I asked her, "Mom, what are you doing in here?"  She stared straight ahead and told me, "I need to get the pre-admits done so these patients can get rooms."  Her job in the Admitting office at our local hospital was more stressful than I thought.  My two year old nephew Joe-Joe would routinely unlock, unlatch, and unbolt the front door of my sister-in-law’s house in the middle of the night, before wandering down the block to the park where his frantic mother would eventually find him, swinging or climbing around on the playground equipment.

I’ve never had a problem sleeping.  When I’m horizontal, sleep is not far behind.  Lately, I’ve found that as uncomfortable as airplane seats are, I’m getting better and better at sleeping in them, too.  After looking at some survey data (from the Embassy Suites "Business Traveler’s Survey," generously sent to me by Mr. Ben Tanner), it is obvious that sleep problems plague a lot more people that I would have guessed.

"Getting a Restful Night’s Sleep on the Road" was ranked MORE frustrating/annoying than Airport Security!  Fully 33% of people surveyed find it difficult to fall asleep on the road.  9% reported that they overslept and missed their meeting entirely, and 1% of those people handled the situation by "crying!" (I don’t make this stuff up; "crying" was a legitimate answer in the survey).

Good grief people, you can’t come crying your way into a scheduled meeting! Get some sleep for pity-sakes.  Here are some tips:

• Always travel with a travel alarm clock that you are 100% sure you will wake up to.  I use my travel alarm and I also use the alarm clock in my cell phone as a backup.
• Try to match your sleep to your home time zone.  This continues to be the most difficult thing for me to master.  Bouncing between time zones from week to week can really mess you up.  This may mean that you’re waking up earlier than usual.  Use that extra early time to exercise, get some extra work done, or to have a nice slow breakfast.
• Blindfolds and earplugs help, especially when you’re trying to go to bed at 7pm in California (11pm in NYC) and it’s still broad daylight outside. 
• I always travel with a few clothespins to draw the curtains completely closed (paperclips can work, too); darkness is a must!
• Book your flight so you arrive in the late afternoon, if possible.  Arriving late, means arriving even later to your hotel after you get your rental car, directions, drive in, check in, etc.  You need the time to decompress, have a decent meal, and to relax a bit before going to bed.
• Sleeping is a routine.  I avoid the bed until it is time to sleep.  No eating, reading, working, or watching TV in the bed.  Eventually, you’ll condition yourself to know the bed is for sleeping!
• Get a room on a high floor.  It’s away from the noise on the ground (traffic, sirens, people, etc).  You can also ask for a room that is away from the elevator shafts.  Those make some crazy noises, and you can usually overhear some conversations people have while they wait for the elevator to reach them.
• I’ve found that warm soak in the bath tub, followed by a collapse in the bed of a cool room does wonders to relax me after a stressful day.

One final tip, if you do sleepwalk like my mother does, I would advise against sleeping in the nude when you’re in a hotel... It could be a bit "problematic!"

EXTRA:  Please feel free to leave comments on this article! If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc, please send him a "Tweet" on his twitter account.  You can also follow Ken on Twitter @foodbreeze!