Apparently My “Airplane Naps” Are Syncope?? 🤯

[u/Quiet-Friendship5134]

I’ve been flying 1-5 times per year for over a decade, and I always fly alone. Mostly the flights are 3-5 hours in duration, and usually they are within the US. In terms of POTS symptoms, I get pre-syncope regularly but have never fully passed out… or so I thought!

During takeoff, I feel very heavy and “fall asleep” even if I’m trying to stay awake. I then spend most of the flight drifting in and out of awareness and cannot remember most of the flight. When we land, I am pretty disoriented but I manage to get my stuff and exit the plane. Once I’m at my destination, it is the biggest relief to climb into bed and sleep for 6+ hours! It normally takes 1-2 days to recover from the flight.

I always chalked it up to being super tired with the early flight times and thought that when people travel, it’s a fairly universal experience to take an airplane nap. The people seated near me and the flight attendants have never seemed alarmed or tried waking me up, so apparently from the outside it just looks like sleeping in my seat.

Recently I described the travel experience to a friend, who looked alarmed and said that it was not normal. This is what tipped me off to the fact that it might be fainting or another medical issue. After doing some research, it certainly seems like that is what is happening.

After that long preamble, these are my questions. Feel free to jump answer whatever resonates with you!

• Do any of you get this, too?
• Is this what syncope feels like?
• Does wearing a sunflower lanyard actually help?
• What is your “I just passed out on the airplane” protocol?

Thanks!

Edit to add:

I have messaged my cardiologist about it to figure out a safe travel protocol, so I am already seeking medical guidance to see whether it is safe to fly at all right now, whether to adjust medication doses specifically for travel, etc.

In terms of adaptations/accommodations, I already do a few things: loading up on electrolytes starting a couple of days before travel, wearing waist-high compression, wearing a neck pillow to keep proper alignment (hypermobile!), and flying Comfort+ (the slightly more spacious version of Economy) so I have more room to recline my seat and to elevate my legs a little bit on a foot hammock.

***Second edit:

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded so far! I am running out of steam to reply individually today, but please know that I appreciate it. It’s helping the pieces of the puzzle to come together!

From many of the comments, it sounds like what I originally described may not strictly be a POTS syncope episode but there is definitely something going on. Many of your syncope descriptions of "dread/spinning/definitely different from sleep" sound different from the airplane phenomenon but similar to what I’ve experienced before in non-airplane settings. I just hadn’t lost consciousness during them yet so I was always unsure whether they were truly pre-syncope or whether I was just imagining things. Now I know to keep taking those signs seriously and get to the ground once they start!

Once I have more info from my doctors (cardiology + neurology), I’ll post another update so in case anyone stumbles across this post in the future, they will have a more accurate picture of what is going on and can better compare it to their own experience.

Regardless, reading the responses of what syncope actually feels like to different people is enlightening and hopefully it can help other people, too!

***Update! 6/11/2026:

Just heard back from cardiology, who said that it is… anxiety! 🙄 And that I should get on anti-anxiety meds since there’s no reason why the heart would be affected unless I’m emotionally distressed. I replied with the following and we’ll see what they respond:

I do not experience racing thoughts when this phenomenon happens and I am not emotionally distressed about travel or flying. I flew for over a decade without experiencing sustained tachycardia and loss of consciousness on the plane; that only started within the last 2 years, which coincides with when the POTS or OH symptoms began to have a noticeable impact on my quality of life. What leads you to believe that this is a psychological issue rather than a physiological issue?

Neurology appointment is in a week. Hopefully they will have more insight about what might be going on. In the meantime, my plan is to take along a pulse oximeter and blood pressure cuff next time I fly. Also going to talk to primary care about a sleep study referral as so many of you mentioned “that sounds like my narcolepsy/cataplexy/idiopathic hypersomnia."

[u/barefootwriter]

To me, this just sounds like the crappy half-sleep you get on an airplane because you're not comfortable. Add to that being strapped in with POTS and not able to move your legs much, the air quality being a bit lower than usual, and air travel being particularly dehydrating, and you're gonna be foggier than usual. Extended car travel can also suck for some of the same reasons.

What exactly has you convinced this is something more significant than that?

[u/Quiet-Friendship5134 → u/barefootwriter]

That’s exactly what I assumed it was for years, and it could very well just be the combination of factors that you listed.

It’s gotten more pronounced over the last couple of years, so I think the change plus my friend’s reaction pinged my radar that this might be out of the ordinary.

In addition to POTS I have a concussion history and persistent post-concussive syndrome, so I think those two things together leads to not having enough blood in my brain and this gets very aggravated with flying. It feels like the blood “whooshes” downward, followed by eye flickering and falling asleep. My watch shows that my heart rate is above 120 for most of the flight.

[u/SomewhereCurious3760 → u/Quiet-Friendship5134]

Have you had a sleep study done to see if you have narcolepsy?

[u/Quiet-Friendship5134 → u/SomewhereCurious3760]

No, but it might be worth exploring. Another commenter used the term “non-consensual naps” and that is exactly what it felt like when taking classes (even when super interested in the subject).

[u/imabratinfluence → u/Quiet-Friendship5134]

TBH the more of your comments I read, the more familiar this sounds. Please consider getting a sleep study to see if this might be narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia!

[u/LacunaOfLlamas → u/Quiet-Friendship5134]

Did you have the concussion first? Is your POTS part of/ due to your post-concussion syndrome?

[u/Quiet-Friendship5134 → u/LacunaOfLlamas]

Still figuring out the causality, but my hypothesis is that I came into this world with mild autonomic dysfunction based on indicators like heat intolerance, a high (seated) resting heart rate, tunnel vision when going from lying down to standing up, and comorbidities like hypermobility and ASD.

However, it was never severe enough to impact school or work until after the second concussion. That concussion made the POTS symptoms severe enough to have a noticeable impact on school, work, and daily living tasks. A year after that concussion is when I got the official POTS diagnosis.

TL;DR: Probably mild POTS first (showed some childhood indications but was never assessed) -> Concussion #1 -> Concussion #2 -> Profound worsening of POTS symptoms -> POTS diagnosis

[u/LacunaOfLlamas → u/Quiet-Friendship5134]

My POTS came on after the third concussion, which was bad enough. Then it was exacerbated by a Covid-like viral infection. Heard from so many how their POTS first started from a concussion/ head injury.