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Oct 21st 2015, 15:48 by B.R.
SLEEPING and airports; it is a fraught relationship. In few places does a visit
to the land of nod seem more appealing. Is there any state more catatonic than
being air-side when your flight has been delayed for eight hours until gone
midnight? Or when you have a lengthy layover halfway through a mammoth journey?
There are only so many times you can stroll around the shops vacantly staring
at leather belts; there are only so many Bloody Marys you can sup by yourself
at the bar. Yet, few places are less conducive to getting some shut-eye. First
there is the noisy stream of people. Then there are the ear-splitting tannoy
announcements. But more than these, there is the rock-hard seating with
razor-sharp armrests, whose only purpose is to stop you sprawling out and
escaping the horror. In some countries sleep deprivation is a method of
torture. At JFK it is civil engineering.
It has always been a mystery why airports seem so keen to stop you dozing off.
(A few take things to extremes: Reykjavik even puts up signs explicitly
forbidding flyers from attempting some shut-eye.) Perhaps they worry that the
moment people stop moving they also stop buying duty-free. Maybe they think
that a sprawling, snoring passenger will be a nuisance to those around him.
They may just have never considered tired passengers needs. But Gulliver
suspects that, like many in the commercial aviation business, they are merely
sadists.
I was grateful, therefore, to be pointed in the direction of The Guide to
Sleeping in Airports . The website has just released its 2015 ranking of the
best airports around the world in which to get some sleep. The bar for
inclusion is pretty low: Features likely to help boost an airport's
sleep-ability factor include things like designated rest zones, comfortable
couches, courtesy blankets and quiet corners in the post-security section.
That, and staff sympathetic to the sleeper's cause. That doesn t seem too much
to ask, does it? Yet remarkably few make the grade.
Singapore Changi International comes out top. The website cites Singapore's
free lounge chairs, low-lit relaxation zones, armrest-free seating at the
gates, free massage chairs and easy chairs. Gulliver can t quibble. It is,
undoubtedly, one of the most pleasant airports that I have passed through even
when on one of those aforementioned long layovers. Others in the top five are
Seoul Incheon, Helsinki, Munich and Vienna. To no one s surprise, given its
zero-tolerance policy, Reykjavik is rated the world s most sleep-unfriendly. As
if visiting the land of the midnight sun weren't tiring enough already.