Fliers Seek Better Ways To Get Sleep On a Plane

It's the holy grail of long-distance economy travel: a pillow that can actually help you get some sleep.

- JACOB PASSY

Falling asleep on a plane has long been a tall order for fliers. Lately, it's gotten worse. Ever thinner chairs and cramped confines are a recipe for a restless journey. The end result is fliers buying body pillows, neck pillows, horseshoe pillows and whatever else they heard about from a friend or saw on social media to get some sleep.

Many have come to the same conclusion: The old-school Ushaped pillows found in virtually every airport gift shop across the globe aren't working. It's time to try something-anything-else.

Joe Wood, 63 years old, has racked up close to 1 million frequent-flier miles traveling for work. He says he has tried all sorts of sleep aids. He found microbeadfilled neck pillows were bulky to carry and provided little to no support. He then resorted to fashioning his own pillow out of airlinesupplied blankets.

He has finally settled on a travel pillow from Cabeau. He likes how the pillow can be compressed to fit in a small carrying case. But he says it isn't a perfect solution.

"It's the best I've had, but it's still only maybe a seven" out of 10, says Wood, who lives in Covington, Ky.

Cabeau plans to offer a new pillow in 2025.

A tired tradition