We're getting ready to land in Bali after 2 long flights and one long layover.
Miami to Istanbul 11 hrs
Layover in Istanbul 9 hrs
Istanbul to Bali 12 hours.
I have no idea what time it is anywhere. I think it's Saturday
We choose to go with the flow rather than try to control our schedule. Shortly after the plane takes off they serve a full dinner meal and wine (regardless of what time it is). Then there are movies to watch and sleep to catch. They serve breakfast an hour or so before landing.
There was a time that I could sleep on a plane. That was many years ago. Last year we did three trips with long flights, Italy, UK and Maldives. We tried taking Tylenol PM, but it just didn't help. We also wandered around Dubai airport, thinking we could find a comfy lounge chair to catch some zzz's π΄. But that didn't happen. You don't want to start your vacation in a sleep deprived state. For Maldives I ended up catching cold that I mainly blame on the 15 hours in the airport. Lesson: it's worth getting a hotel room fort the night. I've seen info on 'sleeping pods' but they're rented by the hour but within certain ranges that have never made sense to me.
Catching that cold meant that I stayed in bed for the first 3 days on the dive boat, missing at least 4 dives.
As we get older, I believe that sleep is more important than ever. Sleep is when your body heals itself. You can compensate for bad behavior, π·? With sufficient sleep. At home both Jim and I have become obsessed with our sleep stats provided by our watches. It's not just hours asleep, it's your heart rate, your blood oxygen rate, and something called ,'readiness'. I was hoping to get perfect scores for the two nights before travel but that didn't happen. Because of the problems with our tickets, we were a bit stressed and especially the night before. We could check in as of 10pm the night before. So we were up for 2-3 hours trying to get out worked out. We finally went back to sleep with Jim succeeding in getting a boarding pass. I had a certified ticket but still no seat. My watch told readiness was poor .
All this is to explain that this time we asked our doctor to prescribe some real sleeping pills. And I can now report, they worked! We're about to land after the second long flight. We took one pill each for both flights. We took it after the meal was served and we each got somewhere between 4 and 7 hours of real sleep YAY!
My watch says my readiness is pretty good, I feel relaxed and clear headed.
After landing in Bali, we do have a hotel room because our next, and last flight, is 12 hours away. It is just a 3 hour flight to our final destination, Manado.