Sleeping is typically a private matter. We allow ourselves to do it in our homes or hotel rooms, when no one other than our close family is around.

With the notable exception of airplanes.

Warks would like to know why so many people feel like this airplane exception is permissible.

Other travelers offer some very pragmatic answers:

Perhaps these people awoke at some ungodly hour to get to the airport to check in on time and maybe they had combined it with a late night of fun dancing and frivolity ~Ansett

Or they’ve connected from a long haul flight and had a rough night ~blackcat20

But former army man Moopere provides perhaps the best reason to sleep, and subsequently stop sleeping when in flight:

even though its been decades some habits you never seem to break – when there is nothing better to do _always_ take the opportunity to get some sleep I’m usually asleep before we even take off … night/day doesn’t matter. The only reason I’ll wake up usually is another ex-army thing (heheehe), the only thing better then sleep is food.

And as far as Glider is concerned, an in-flight nap is right up there with one of the greatest theoretical achievements of a technologically advanced society:

I love when I can fall asleep on the plane and wake up to find myself a few hours closer to arrival. It’s the closest thing to time travel I can think of.

In what camp do you fall? Is sleeping in an airplane the equivalent of sleeping at your restaurant table in terms of etiquette? Or do you think they should go ahead and pump sleeping gas throughout the cabin and knock us all out?

Among the major airlines, it seems only Lufthansa has made their stance on the matter clear: