Learn to sleep anywhere on the road.

We’ve all been there, desperately trying to get a good nights sleep because you have an early start in the morning but no matter how hard you try you just can’t sleep.

In backpacker hostels it can be extremely difficult with the numerous annoyances that prevent you from catching up on your sleep. I touched on this subject in my earlier article 8 things I hate about hostel dorms.

Thankfully we have some great tips to help you recover after a hard days or nights travel:

1. Bring some ear plugs

It maybe the most obvious one on the list, but it’s certainly one of the most important. When you’re trapped in a tiny 4 bed dorm with a huge snoring bear of a man (or women) in the bunk above you’ll be relieved that you packed a pair of ear plugs.

2. Bring along your mp3 player.

It doesn’t have to be a top of the range all singing all dancing ipod, just an mp3 player that can handle the ups and downs of travel. This item, much like the ear plugs will be a life saver when you want to shut out the rest of the world and just chill out. On my last trip I’d fall asleep listening to my mp3 player with a pair of snug noise reduction head phones.

Earlier I talked about this subject in the article “Should I take my mp3 player traveling”.

An mp3 player can be a life saver when traveling.

3.  Be Tolerant

If you are going to be staying in numerous backpacking hostels you are going to have to be quite tolerant of other people. You’ll find people rustling plastic bags, coming in drunk and slamming doors… just to name a few. If you can’t tolerate this then you’ll find yourself getting very frustrated and agitated, in this frame of mind it’s pretty much impossible to sleep.

4. Learn to sleep anywhere

OK, so it might not be sleeping in the actual hostel but it’ll help you get by. I used to think that I was a light sleeper and that I could only really sleep in my own homely bed. After traveling for months I found myself falling asleep in the strangest places. I was soon able to catch up on sleep after the early morning starts by sleeping on clapped out buses, run down mini vans, on the beach, in the airport and just about anywhere whenever I needed to.

5. Be Flexible

Be flexible about when you are going to get some extra shut eye. In the afternoon in many hostels is a pretty good time as many people have headed out. If you have had a bad journey and are suffering from a lack of sleep just take the afternoon as an opportunity to rest while the hostel is at it’s quietest.

You have to learn to sleep differently when you are on the road. You can’t rely on having your own comfy bed at home and it’s likely they’ll be a few disturbances.

If you can adjust to these issues early on, the better nights (or days) sleep you’ll get and in turn the fresher you’ll feel.

Have you had any interesting experiences sleeping in backpacker hostels? Let us know in the comments.