I fly a lot. That’s a very chic thing to say, and I’m grateful that I can often visit far-flung loved ones and so many corners of the world.
However, the reality is probably less glamorous than what you’re imagining: I usually sit at the back of the plane, by the toilets, hunched over my laptop to meet a deadline, with nothing but a smashed PB&J to nourish me because I will not abide the indignity of paying $6 for a canister of Pringles.
The only respite from this winged hell would be to sleep. Not just to escape the barbarity of the experience but also to recover some of the hours lost to the time zone upon landing. But I’ve never been able to sleep on a flight.
I thought that sleep was a privilege reserved for the first-class passengers in their sequestered cabins, or the pharmaceutically aided, or those lucky freaks who somehow overcome the bright lights, the stiff seats, the crying infants, and the constant overhead announcements. So I took on this assignment with (respectful) skepticism. I agreed to try the Pluto Pod Travel Pillow, a slightly ridiculous-looking contraption that claims to help you sleep in non-ideal environments, such as airplanes.
I tested the travel pillow on an 11-ish-hour flight from Los Angeles to London (and back), which is miserable even in first class but downright inhumane in economy—the perfect laboratory. I could barely believe it, but the impossible happened: I slept nearly 6 hours straight.
This light-blocking neck pillow looks like something an astronaut might wear, and we think it could keep us snoozing in coach even on an economy flight to the moon.
