Don’t drink before your nap on the plane. It could hurt you now and later

The “fasten seat belt” sign is off, and the time for a nap on your flight is on. You grab your neck pillow, eye mask and a glass of wine to make sure you are well-rested on the other side. That tactic isn’t such a good idea, according to new research. Airplanes flying at altitudes around 8,000 feet (2,438 meters) are hypobaric, meaning the air pressure and oxygen levels are lower than typical conditions on Earth. Combine that with alcohol consumption and sleep, and it’s more likely a person will experience an intensified drop in oxygen saturation in their blood, according to a study published Monday in the journal Thorax. “Please don’t drink alcohol on board of airplanes,” said lead study author Dr. Eva-Maria Elmenhorst, deputy of the department of sleep and human factors and leader of the Working Group on Performance and Sleep at the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine in Cologne, Germany, in an email. To investigate, researchers created an atmospheric environment similar to an airplane cabin in flight. Over two nights, 48 healthy adults slept for four hours in two different environments — once without alcohol and once after drinking the equivalent of two glasses of wine or cans of beer, according to the study. On the nights with alcohol, researchers saw a lowered amount of oxygen and an increased heart rate, the study showed. “The combination of alcohol intake with sleeping under hypobaric conditions poses a considerable strain on the cardiac system and might lead to exacerbation of symptoms in patients with cardiac or pulmonary diseases,” the researchers said.<br/>