Night Trains

[clappy]

Hello everyone,
for those who have taken night trains, would you recommend them? is it hard/uncomfortable to sleep? the plus is of course that you will have an extra day in a city but I don't want to feel tired and grumpy from lack of sleep the night before!

[me]

the night trains i've taken have worked well, with one or two exceptions. only one of these exceptions included a poor night's sleep. [no blanket going through the alps in Springtime. it was too cold to sleep well.]

i'd suggest packing some earplugs (you'll need them in hostels, anyway) and give it a try. if you can't sleep on the 1st one, don't do any more (unless the problem sleeping has nothing to do with being on the train, per se).

- d

[madamtrashheap]

I'm a very light sleeper so don't do the night trains thing unless it fits into my schedule better than anything else. Although next time I'm going to take David's suggestion of earplugs (I use them on planes, so why not trains! Why didn't I make that connection years ago?!!).

Obviously, if you have to change trains in the middle of the night at a quite uncivilised hour then your sleep will be interrupted and you'll compromise the extra time gained in the city, so look for single train journeys or fly if possible.

[me]

have never done a night train with a change. all the NT's i've used have been straight through.

changing NT's in the middle would make a very disjointed rest. . . it wouldn't be a good night's rest, not at all. i would *not* suggest that.

- d

[me]

i even wear earplugs to sleep in hostel dorms! people often get up at night, earplugs let me sleep through that. *but* the alarm on my watch doesn't wake me if i wear earplugs - although it also doesn't wake me if that wrist is under the covers.

- d

madamtrashheap said:

next time I'm going to take David's suggestion of earplugs (I use them on planes, so why not trains! Why didn't I make that connection years ago?!!).

[mango]

Unless you're talking about a sleeper then it really depends on how good you are at sleeping sitting up. It probably depends on your size. I'm 6'0 and find it next to impossible to get comfortable on a train seat for any length of time.