What is it about me and planes? I have absolutely no trouble sleeping pretty much anywhere – except on a plane! Even with serious drugs prescribed by my doctor, with ear plugs, noise cancelling headphones, and even in Business Class where you get those neat SkyBeds, I *still* can't sleep. (Not that we did Business Class…)
We had two flights yesterday/today – the 45 min one to Melbourne from Launceston (where they even served breakfast!), then the 14+ hour one to Los Angeles. That's pure zombie brain waves for me. I can't think clearly, can't concentrate on reading, can't do any work – and can't sleep. So I did some Sudokus (and showed some US tennis camp kids some tips on getting them out), and watched 3 movies I normally wouldn't have seen – "March of the Penguins" (brilliant doco; won an Oscar), "Brokeback Mountain" (good movie; Heath Ledger gives a stunning performance… and the scenery should've got an Oscar too!), and "Walk the Line" (Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter; Reese W won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance and I can see why – she took on a far more demanding role than some of her giggle-girl earlier stuff would have indicated).
And I stared into space, and wrapped myself up in a blanket and tried really hard to sleep… Ain't gonna happen! I'm going to have to resign myself to the fact that sleeping on planes and me are not a good combination.
Rhonda Bracey: At Random 
Do what I do when I have to endure a long flight or a long road trip. Buy new CDs especially for the trip. Or, these days, I guess the hipper thing to do is download a bunch of music onto an MP3 player or an IPOD. Then, when you’re stuck on the plane, just zone out and enjoy the music. With the right music, you might even end up falling asleep!