I don’t sleep well on planes, so my plan for my partner and I’s 12-hour-flight from Munich to Osaka was to stay awake all throughout until we’d go to bed the next day once there. We woke up at 7 AM, took off around 12:30 PM, and landed at midnight our home time—in Japan it was 7 AM, and our new day kicked off immediately. “If I can get through that and then sleep early, I should have no problem with the jet lag,” I concluded.
The first challenge arrived straight after lunch was served on the plane at around 3 PM German time. I was rather tired afterwards, since we also didn’t sleep much the night before—but then I started editing an essay I really wanted to finish, got hooked, and managed to do so over the next two-ish hours.
The next low came more from the conditions of being in a plane than me being tired. When you mostly sit for 12 hours, at some point, your feet, butt, and head—given the air quality in the tin can—will likely start to hurt. I had relaxed a bit after my editing session and wasn’t sure what to do next—but then I played some video games and another two hours flew by.
Eating breakfast at 10 PM wasn’t the problem. Continuing to focus was. I knew I didn’t have the brainpower left to keep reading my philosophy book, so I considered letting some Netflix movie wash over me—but then I remembered a short, punchy new book I could read on my phone. I adjusted the font size so it was comfy to read and kept flicking through the pages. I read half the book before we landed.
Landing came with a new set of challenges in a new country to solve, from custom forms to getting around to freshening up at our hotel before we could enter our room. Naturally, the first hours of the day came and went quickly. We managed to carry the excitement through our check-in time, yet once waiting on the couch for our room, my eyes started closing—but then I showered once we got to the room and managed to stay awake for another hour and a half.
Around 4:30 PM Japan time, I had been up well over 24 hours. I did end up taking a 90-minute nap, but all in all, not only did my tactic work out, I was surprised at how long I managed to maintain it.
Never write yourself off if you still have another plot twist left in the tank—and you almost always have one more invisible ace up your sleeve. “But then I…” Three magical words that will take you farther than any plane.
