FLYING HUNGOVER
"One more drink won’t hurt." or "It’s nothing but travel tomorrow; I don’t need a full night’s rest." It’s moments like these that, with a bit of retrospective thinking, make you realize where everything started to go off the rails.
General rules: consider this a two-for-one. One, keep it light on the booze the night before a big flight, and two, get plenty of sleep. The latter is easier to follow when paired with the former. Boarding a 9-hour flight with 2 hours of sleep is pure misery. All those pre-flight checks: luggage, passport, tickets, etc., they’re all handicapped by little sleep — add a hangover to the equation, and the agony is only amplified. There’s no greater hell than dragging yourself through baggage check, security, boarding, God forbid a delay, and a layover all while your brain is on fire and your legs have turned to jelly. Have you ever had to throw up in a barf bag before your plane even left the ground?
For those whom this advice will fall on deaf ears, it’s best to plan ahead.
PRE-FLIGHT PREP
Drinking dehydrates the body and funny enough, so does a long, high-altitude journey. Hydration tablets seem to curb the in-flight misery a good deal. These tablets provide an ideal balance of electrolytes and vital minerals, making them great for recovery so you can hit the ground running on arrival. Follow that up with some vitamin B6 and you can recover quickly and stave off any ick that comes with flying.
Blowfish Hangover Cure
Nuun Hydration Tablets
FOR THE FLIGHT
Ok, now you’ve settled in and the plane is off the ground, but the misery has yet to subside. Here comes the turbulence, the ideal complement to any mile-high hangover. As the plane pitches, you worry about those margaritas from the previous night making a surprise comeback. To prevent any mid-flight purging, pop some Dramamine to take care of the nausea and make good use of your sleep mask, sleeping’s your best bet to make it to the other side vomit-free.
Sleep Mask
Dramamine Motion Sickness Relief
Post Flight
Airplanes are, to put it lightly, pressurized germ tubes carting the disgustingly ill from country to country. The airplane toilet, a nightmarish hellscape of infectious disease The airplane tray table, an airborne petri dish courtesy of the 50 travelers before you. The point is, airplanes are gross, so if an airport shower is out of the question, do what you can to keep the airplane germs at bay. Our favorites are Vitamin B6 tablets and lavender hand wipes.
Ez Melts Dissolvable B6 Vitamins
Lavender Hand Wipes