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Spending time at a vacation spot far from home can be relaxing. Traveling to a vacation, particularly if an airplane is involved, is rarely stress-free, however. At this time of year, many of us are taking a break from our regular lives, so thinking about the psychological experience of air travel seems appropriate.
Terrorist acts, in the air or on the ground, are, of course, tremendously upsetting. Here, I won’t cover dealing psychologically with terrorism, but will focus on the experience of traveling through the air on an airplane that somehow has been rendered safe from that sort of threat.
Getting to the airport itself is not a picnic, vacation pun intended, but being airborne is much more stressful. Airplanes are among the least hospitable places anyone might find themselves, from a psychological perspective. Almost every sensation and perception experienced on an aircraft makes humans tense, and then tenser.
As soon as you board an airplane, you give up control of your world—although tussling with the TSA and flight delays have probably, pre-boarding, forced you to acknowledge that there are forces more powerful than yourself. When you sink down into that uncomfortable passenger seat, you lose most of your ability to exercise your own free will. And having at least some independence in fundamentally important to humans from every culture, in every situation.
Sure, you can pick your movie (maybe), turn on and off your overhead light, and choose to read or sleep or not, but those sorts of decisions are insignificant compared to the opportunities you lose—such as the ability to determine the speed and the direction that you’re traveling in, to use the restroom whenever you want, or to step outside for some fresh air. Particularly, the ability to get that breath of “non-airplane” air. In brief: human beings are most relaxed and happiest when they can influence their environment.
Losing the ability to determine how close you sit to other people, particularly ones that you don’t know, is extremely stressful. When our personal space is compromised, so is our privacy—on a plane, your row-mates can even read along with you as you try to de-stress with the latest paperback thriller. Outside an airplane, when people have to be too close to others, they take what are known in the psych biz as “compensatory measures.” An elevator trip is an excellent example of a time when people are forced into uncomfortably tight quarters. To keep the tension levels down and everybody calm, people on an elevator avoid making eye contact or acknowledging the presence of other people at all, whenever possible—these are compensatory measures—conversations in elevators are rudimentary at best. Conveniently, airplane seats prevent travelers from making easy eye contact with anyone except flight attendants. On-board conversations are notoriously unsuccessful.
The noises made by airplane engines are particularly disconcerting to travelers. Their pitch and volume are often annoying. In addition, the sounds that airplanes make aren’t really rhythmic, and that unpredictability—even if it is readily explainable as an engine changing gears—induces stress. Stress makes it harder for us to control our emotions and get along with others.
The aircraft cabin is not pressurized to anything close to sea level, and air becomes dry in the course of a flight. The cabin pressure in an airplane is generally equivalent to being at an altitude of over a mile, and in those conditions alertness decreases for most people. That decline makes it even harder for us to deal with the stress of being on a plane.
Being dehydrated also hinders our cognitive performance. Pawson and his research team learned that people who tool water to exams and presumably drank it, thereby staying hydrated, got higher scores than people who didn’t despite having the same level of general ability. Being in places with low relative humidity has also been linked to headaches, which doesn’t help the situation when we’re doing thoughtful work or trying to be amiable with strangers.
Ergonomic conditions are so bad for coach class airplane travelers that they result in psychological stress. The lack of legroom and the position of the tray table can make it difficult just to sit quietly, let alone work on a laptop or follow the plot in many spy novels.
So, what’s an airplane passenger to do? The suggestions that follow can ease the psychological discomfort of passengers in general, but those who are afraid to fly need clinical assistance.
- Listen to calming music you enjoy. Make sure your selections have a rhythm slower than your resting heart rate (generally 50-70 beats per minute). (If you Google “beats per minute,” you’ll find websites that can tell you about this aspect of your favorite music.) Don’t try to create complete silence with earplugs, etc. Your plan won’t work, which will only frustrate you—and silence is just as nerve-racking for humans as the random airplane noises.
- Establish whatever control over your experiences the FAA will allow. For example, if you bring an eye mask and cover your eyes while you nap, you decrease the odds that you’ll be disturbed by the flight attendants and other passengers.
- Don’t try to do thoughtful work as you fly. The air pressure and relative humidity inside the plane will ensure you won’t focus well, anyway—and knowing that you’re not performing at your best will frustrate you and amp up your stress level.
- Look out the window at the clouds as your fly along. Clouds have a fractal pattern that people find calming.
- Bring along your own comfort foods—their smells and tastes will make you feel much calmer. Don’t pack anything, however, that other passengers are likely to find ‘stinky.’ Why make their lives more miserable when you can easily choose something else?
- Be patient with your fellow travelers, at least for as long as you can. You’re all being taxed by the same inflight conditions, and if others snap, reacting negatively will only worsen the situation.
Next time you find yourself on a flight, acknowledge the difficult situation you’re in—that’s the first step to reducing your stress level and enhancing your well-being.
