I have traveled a great deal in my lifetime, and when I first started I always had to sit in a window seat and stayed awake the entire flight even the 10+ hour international flights watching rolling landscapes or clouds go by. Maybe it was travel nerves and watching the world fly by was not only interesting but comforting.
I don't know what has changed but I now prefer the aisle seat most likely so I can easily escape to the restroom, easily get to the overhead storage, or get off the flight faster. The other oddity besides being able to identify a make of the jet engine whether it is the hum of a GE, the whir of a Rolls Royce, or the heavy metal whine of the Pratt & Whitney engines is that I now sleep most of a flight. Even with the best of intentions of working the flight, reading, or watching a movie I go unconscious even before the flight takes off. Yes before and during the takeoff. Maybe it is the people talking and babies crying that has conditioned me to shut off my brain or the planes rocking down the tarmac to the runway, but I go out like a light. Not even a free upgrade to first class or business with fancy food and never ending drinks will be enough to tempt me to stay awake.
Yes the airport tarmac is like anesthesia to me...and like magic I go to sleep on taxiway in Salt Lake City and wake up in far away places.
