5 Best Sleeping Pills for Flights, According to Medical Experts

"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. For those flights, you may as well stay awake, she says. But if you'll be on a plane overnight and waking up in a vastly different time zone"

"That's when sleeping pills and supplements 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."

"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 hours later, Das says."

Medical experts recommend considering sleeping pills or supplements for overnight long-haul flights when arriving in a distant time zone to help rest and reduce jet lag. Short flights or westward travel across time zones often do not require sleeping aids and staying awake may be preferable. Alcohol can promote falling asleep quickly but leads to disrupted and fragmented sleep quality. Ambien is a prescription sedative-hypnotic that slows brain activity and induces strong sleep. Ambien can cause retroactive amnesia, allowing people to wake with no memory of midflight interactions. Users should be aware of potential unwelcome side effects before using prescription sleep medications.

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