Travel hacks make life on the road run more smoothly, which is great news for those who travel frequently for work or relaxation. Fortunately, flight attendants and pilots, who spend countless hours flying and in hotels turn to social media to advise others. For instance, a pilot shared something he always does to ensure he gets better sleep.

Travel Hack from a Pilot

Pilot Ron Wagner shared on Quora a travel hack that can help people struggling with sleep disorientation. Sleep disorientation is common in people who travel for work, or often sleep in new places, as they may wake up and forget where they are. Wagner explains a travel hack he uses to combat this issue.

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Travel Hack to Prevent Confusion

Wagner’s helpful travel hack is to sleep with the bathroom light on when you stay at hotels, or new places because having a light on will help you see more clearly in the dark of night. This will help you acclimate to your surroundings and, hopefully, prevent confusion or panic.

The Pilot’s Explanation

“The room was totally pitch black and I needed to pee. I lay there with my eyes wide open looking around, trying to find some visual clue. Nothing. Total blackness,” he says, regarding the helpful travel hack. “Not only could I not recall the city, but I didn’t even know how to get up. Where was the wall? Where was the lamp? Which way to the bathroom?”

Adding Perspective

He continued: “The hack is to turn on the bathroom light and leave the door cracked just the tiniest bit. The light coming through that crack will give you your bearings.” However, Wagner explains that you don’t necessarily have to use the bathroom light. Any light will do.

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An Alternate Travel Hack

“If the curtains don’t fully block the light, you don’t need to do this, so the real hack is to make sure there is some sliver of light somewhere to help you recall where you are,” he added. “Even then I still awoke every once in a while wondering what city I was in, but it turns out that just a few orienting clues in the sliver of light were all I needed to recall.”

Sleep Disorientation

Although sleep disorientation isn’t an official medical term, Very Well Health describes something similar, confusional arousal. Around 20% of adults and children experience some form of confusional arousal, which often happens during the transition from the deepest stage of sleep, to waking up. The cause is thought to be related to brain function because “different regions of the brain fail to fully communicate with each other,” according to VWH. “As a result, some parts of the sleeper’s brain stay asleep while others suddenly awake.”

Recognizing Sleep Disorientation

Symptoms include:

• Confusion or disorientation.
• Aggression
• Staring off into space without saying anything.
• Appearing to be “looking through you”
• Confused or slurred speech

While seemingly terrifying, confusional arousal comes in short episodes, around 10 minutes, explains VWH.