Some tips on how I made a 14+ hours plane flight to India comfortable.

It seems that every time I travel, especially by airplane, the next day I have a bad runny nose. It only lasts a day, and can happen whether I am traveling in the states or foreign countries. No over the counter medications I take seem to help.

The last trip I took, to India, was an exception. I decided to take precautionary measures before and during the flight. I did some research and wrote down a bunch of recommended supplements to take.

In addition, I researched how to make the long 14+ hour non-stop flight from the States to India as comfortable as I could. I also usually have a hard time sleeping on the plane and I wanted to make sure I had as much sleep as possible.

Steps To A Comfortable Flight

Xlear Nasal Spray

I listed this first, as I believe it is the most important one. The theory is the plane cabin's air is very dry. This causes your respiratory system's immune system to overreact, which I believe leads my nose to produce too much mucus. Together with that and the cabin pressure, it reeks havoc on my immune system.

I sprayed my nose with Xlear every couple hours. I also use this product whenever I am congested at home, and attribute it to preventing any cold or flu, from moving from my head to chest (I haven't had a chest cold in over 8 years because of this and a combination of steam baths, and using energy healing techniques).

Eye Mask

Whenever I think of an eye mask, I think of some rich lady in a movie wearing it to bed, so for years, I avoided using one. Even though they turn off most of the lights in the cabin, usually after the first meal, there is still some background lights, or someone with their personal light on. To prevent those lights from tricking your brain to think it's time to wake up, an eye mask is best for keeping all light out.

I wore an eye mask for the first time, and I attribute it to having the best sleep on a plane I've ever had. I usually only get a couple of hours and this time I slept close to 5 hours. And even when I did wake up, it was slowly, and I kept the mask on, while relaxing, until I felt I was totally awake.

Ear Plugs or Head Phones

I usually keep ear plugs in for an entire flight. It helps me with the cabin pressure and any background noise from the plane's engines, not to mention noise from fellow passengers. On this trip, I decided to wear my head phones instead. I have a pair of Voda LP2 Isolation head phones. They are supposed to naturally keep most noise out (that's the Isolation part). They aren't noise cancelling, where noise cancelling blocks out the ambient sounds, but not voices too much. Noise Cancelling also need batteries to run. Isolation headphones try to block out the noise using the ear muff part themselves, by totally covering your ears.

Neck Pillow

Like the eye mask, I was resistant to using a neck pillow for years. I knew I needed one, because whenever I try falling asleep, my head tends to fall forward and I wake up. Together with my bulky headphones, they and the neck pillow kept my head from moving around too much, and for that inevitable falling forward of my head that always occurred without it. I was surprised how well it worked on this trip, and owe some of it to my 5+ hours of sleep.

A Good Book

By good book, I mean a book that will keep you interested. You might want to try reading it before you get on the plane, to test if the story gets you hooked. Also, some books don't get interesting, until after the first couple of chapters. It should be like a good movie, as in you would not want to turn the movie off until it's over. You shouldn't want to close that book until you're finished with it, or you are ready to take that all important nap.

Staying Healthy

This tip is important to keep you healthy not only on the plane, but when you get off too. You want your immune system to work on high gear while you are traveling, or returning home to possibly go back to work. On this last trip, I purchased some Wellness Formula supplements and Emergen C from Vitamin Shoppe. I followed the instructions on each. For example. The Wellness Formula tables said to start taking them a few days before your flight, so you body immune system is already stronger when your trip begins.

Make sure to eat healthy a few days before the flight too. No unhealthy carbs or excess use of alcohol. Drink lots of water. Get "some exercise" and plenty of rest.

I emphasized "some exercise", because you don't want your body too sore and stiff, since you'll be mostly immobilized on the plane and unable to loosen up regularly. You also don't want your body using up energy healing you from your workout, when it could be using that energy to prop up your immune system

Also try to stay relaxed before your trip. This can sometimes be hard, when you have a million things to do beforehand. Making a good checklist, and scheduling yourself to get ready a week or 2 before the trip, is very helpful too!

Bring Your Own Water

Don't depend on just the water the airline attendant offers you. For this 14 hour flight, I brought about 4 litters of water. I personally use reusable water bottles and fill them up at the airport water fountain, just before boarding my flight. My friend recently gave me some collapsible plastic (BPA free) water bottles. When empty, they take little to no room.

Space out your water drinking to a couple mouthfuls every 15-20 minutes. As you might be thinking, I personally thought drinking all that water would make me have to urinate all the time. But to my surprise, I probably visited the bathroom less than 5 times over the 14 hours. As I can only guess, the plane air is so dry, that it probably made me dehydrated and my body was using most of that water up. And even if you have to go to the bathroom a lot more often, see it as a good thing to get up, move around and stretch a bit.

In Conclusion

Now that I have a nice plan typed out and successfully implemented on at least one trip, I hope to test this out on many more oversea and long domestic trips to follow. I hope my tips were helpful. If I think of anymore, I'll try to add to this list, or create an additional page of them.