There’s nothing worse than being exhausted on the first day of vacation after sitting in an uncomfortable chair during a long flight.
But James Leinhardt, founder of mattress and pillow brand Levitex, has revealed three tips that could help passengers get some sleep on their next plane trip.
The video was posted on the Levitex TikTok page (@levitex) and has been viewed by more than 2.7 million people.
With the legend: ‘Comfortable in economics? It’s not impossible,” the clip shows James sitting in a chair to demonstrate how you can sleep better while in the air.
The Manchester expert told viewers: “How difficult it is to sleep comfortably on a plane, it’s almost impossible, especially on a long journey, so here are some practical tips.”
A Levitex sleep expert has revealed three tips that could help passengers get some sleep on their next plane trip, and opinions are divided.
1. Recline your seat
The first advice from the sleep and posture expert is controversial and generated a debate in the comments of the video.
He advised: “Make sure you recline the chair because you will distribute your body weight more evenly and there will be less pressure on your butt.”
However, some users have called it “rude” to the person behind you to recline your seat.
Viewers angrily wrote: “No, reclining screws up the person behind you” and “don’t recline your chair.”
A third wrote: “Reclining the seat is an instant no-sleep position, prompting complaints from the rear passenger, and rightly so.”
On the other side of the argument, one passenger said: “To all those who think it’s rude to recline your seat, come back to me after you’ve flown from Australia to London.”
Another agreed: “I’m not going to pay thousands of dollars to not recline.”
Meanwhile, one user suggested: ‘Long journey etiquette: recline after food service has been collected. Upright when the next meal service arrives.’
The sleep expert explained: “You can just take your old sweater, put it around your neck and use an old elastic band or hair tie and hold that neck up.”
2. Support your neck
Moving on, James’ next tip is to support your neck, but not like you usually would.
The expert and TikToker explained: ‘The second thing is that you need to support your neck, and not with those squishy memory foam nonsense that will let you collapse and fall like that.
‘You can take your old sweater, put it around your neck and use an old elastic band or a hair bow and hold that neck up.
‘When you do that, your head won’t droop and fall and you’ll get that support.
3. Support your back
Finally, the founder of the pillow company demonstrated how when we fall asleep, our back firmly touches the mattress, so we need to recreate this to give ourselves the best chance of getting a good night’s sleep.
And he added: ‘Third thing, just as in the dream we try to bring the bed closer to the person, the same thing happens with the chair.
“We always have this big hole between our back and the chair, so put a roll of wood or a cushion in there and you’ll be much better supported so you can get a half-decent sleep.”
Finally, before ending the clip, the posture expert warned about one way in which you should never sleep on a plane.
He said, ‘Please never do this,’ and leaned forward over the tray with his arms crossed and his head resting on them.
One viewer admitted: “Never do this, literally the only way I can sleep on a plane.”
Another wrote: ‘Why you should never lean forward? I always do that, it’s the only way I can sleep.’
Meanwhile, a third admitted: “I feel like my real problem is that my body doesn’t feel safe enough to completely fall asleep with strangers.”
It comes just after a woman reignited debate over plane etiquette after shouting at a fellow passenger when she accused them of “repeatedly pushing her seat” when she reclined it.
In an attempt to resolve the argument, an etiquette expert has expressed her opinion on pressing the recline button mid-flight, and her advice is to refrain from doing so altogether on short-haul trips.
Katarina, who lives in Europe, notes in a TikTok that “the reclining seat is not prohibited since the feature is there.”
However, he says: “It is good manners to always check the passenger behind us before reclining.”
The travel professional points out that if someone behind you is ‘in the middle of a meal with the tray open, or watching a movie on the seat screen’, reclining your seat could ‘disturb’ them and this would be an ‘inconsiderate’ action.