This is all about home sleep. I’m ignoring downroute sleep because that’s just a mess at the best of times.

I’ve been flying long haul for just about 4 years now. The biggest difficulty I’ve found is managing sleep when I get back home. Landing day I go straight to bed (luckily for me I have a fairly short commute). I sleep for about 2-3 hours and then in the evening I tend to go to bed around about 9-9:30. That night I tend to get fairly good sleep.

However the the next few nights no matter what I do I will always wake up at 2-3 am and struggle to get back to sleep properly (or at least well) and the next morning I tend to feel crap. Then it’s back to work. I’ve got a Fitbit and ive noticed the days I feel less rubbish are the days I have more deep sleep (more than an hour).

Ive gone through all the usual stuff. No screen time in the hour before bed, just read a book. No caffeine after lunch. I’m pretty sure I don’t suffer from depression. I’m at a bit of a loss really. At the start of my long haul career I really wasn’t coping with sleep and ended up taking sleep aids (good ole CVS) but I’ve completely abandoned them and I am loathe to explore any other pharmaceutical remedies (not withstanding most of them negating the privileges of my class 1 medical).

So im going to start off by looking at the collective wisdom here. Oh and now she’s not staring over my shoulder her indoors snores so I often decamp to the spare room.

I really would like to offer my advice. But I am just too friggin tired!

I’ve been flying long haul for over 20 years and often used to have this problem, particularly returning from a 4 day or longer west-coast US trip. Like you, I have a couple of hours sleep when I get home and then try to go to bed at a normal time, which for me would be not before 10pm.

I found where I was going wrong was sleeping for a lengthy period, in excess of 8 hours. Now I set the alarm to get 8 hours and then go for a run at some stage during the day, despite feeling like it’s the last thing I want to do. It seems to work most of the time. Good luck!

I have not had a serious problem so far, and I am no spring chicken.

I read a chapter of a novel in bed before sleep, which usually settles me. (An actual book, not a screen). If sleep doesn’t happen, I try another chapter or put my bedside radio, tuned to a quiet speech channel on a sleep timer of 15 mins. I have rigged up headphones for the television so Mrs Uplinker doesn’t disturb me. And, as you have tried, sleep in the spare room.

Try giving up caffeine altogether - I drink only decaff. Try only decaff for a month and see how you get on.

How fit are you? I ask because the folk at work who complain about not being able to change sleep patterns are almost universally fat and unfit. I don’t know if this is a causal factor, but as lekkerste says, going for a run once or twice a week seems to help. I also do daily press-ups and sit-ups and eat healthily. If your waist diameter is larger than your hip diameter, you probably need to cut out all sugar, eat much less carbs, and get toned up :ok:

Good luck !

PS, I think there is caffeine in Coke, and there certainly is in all those ‘energy drinks’, so check the ingredients and avoid them like the plague.

To be honest I run about 40k a week, never drink caffeine after lunch if I’m not flying and haven’t touched an energy drink or Coca Cola in years.

I think setting ting the alarm 8 hours after going to bed would possibly be the way forward. At least worth a try.